By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

Through May 9, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services have reported 46,756 total confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 4,526 deaths.

In the City of Detroit, 9709 cases and 1181 deaths have been reported.

On Thursday, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-77 to extend Michigan’s Stay Home, Stay Safe order to May 28. The governor’s order will allow manufacturing workers, including those at Michigan’s Big 3 auto companies, to resume work on Monday, May 11 as part of her MI Safe Start Plan.

Today, the State of Michigan has approved contracts to rapidly expand Michigan’s contact tracing efforts, a critical next step in its COVID-19 response. The state is partnering with Rock Connections, LLC for volunteer management and Deloitte for technology integration in support of the COVID-19 contact tracing.

“Contact tracing is a proven public health strategy and another tool we’re utilizing to help limit the spread of COVID-19 and reduce the loss of life in our state,” said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive and chief deputy for health. “Our team has been working around the clock to stand up this new operation and look forward to significantly expanding the current contact tracing system in place.”

Contact tracing involves identifying individuals affected by COVID-19 and interviewing friends, families and other close contacts about their symptoms and health. Rock Connections will oversee volunteer staff who will call identified close contacts for daily check-ins. Calls will be made seven days a week for the next six to 12 months. During these calls, volunteers will provide information about steps that exposed individuals should take to monitor their health and prevent the spread of COVID-19. They will also log responses to determine if these individuals are symptomatic for COVID-19 and need to be referred to other public health teams for additional follow-up.

Lastly, the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) has logged more coronavirus deaths than any other state prison system and ranks second nationwide behind New Jersey for prisoner deaths per capita.

MDOC also has more deaths from COVID-19 than the federal prison system, which houses more than 172,000 people nationwide, a population that’s nearly five times larger than MDOC’s population of roughly 38,000.