65 New Covid-19 Cases Are Directly Linked To A Lansing Bar

The current Lansing Coronavirus outbreak shows how easily a second wave of the virus can happen.

Just as it looked like we were containing this deadly virus, people in the U.S. are testing positive at an alarming rate.  We'll dive into the National numbers in a moment.  First let's take a look at Lansing, MI.

63 of the 65 people that tested positive for Covid-19 last week were customers at Harper’s Restaurant and Brew Pub in East Lansing between June 12 - June 20th.  These people range in age from 16-28 years-old.  The timeline is a true example of how quickly we can lose control of the spread of this virus.

June 8th: Bars were allowed to open in Michigan

June 12th - June 20th: This is the time period that the people that tested positive were customers of Harper's in East Lansing.

June 23rd - June 26th: 63 people so far have test positive for Covid-19 after visiting the same bar.

In fact, on June 18th Michigan was one of only 3 states in the "On track to contain Covid-19" category.  Michigan is no longer in that category because of outbreaks like the one in Lansing.

There are a handful of states that opened too early according to officials that now seem to be paying the price.  Below are new daily cases averaged over the last 7 days according to NPR.

Florida has seen an increase of 269% averaging 5,535 new cases a day.

Texas has seen an increase of 192% averaging 5,188 new cases a day.

California has seen an increase of 66% averaging 5,053 new cases a day.

Arizona has seen an increase of 117% averaging 2,857 new cases a day.

The United States overall experienced a trend of new Covid-19 cases increasing beginning on June 25th.  Saturday, June 27th the U.S. broke another record we didn't want to break as 40,526 new daily cases were reported.  Then we blew that record out of the water on Sunday, June 28th with 44,458 new daily cases.

Find more statistics at Statista

Ingham County Health Officer Linda S. Vail responded specifically to the Lansing outbreak in a story from Clickondetroit by saying,

Anyone could have COVID-19.  You never know because some people with coronavirus are not yet sick, and some people never have signs of the disease. We need people to treat every person they encounter as a potential carrier. That means wearing masks and keeping six feet away from others. I strongly urge everyone to take precautions so that we can keep infections down and keep businesses open.

Let's do our part to keep our community safe and to keep Michigan open.

Stay safe and healthy everyone.