STEEPENING CURVE

Michigan’s Coronavirus Death Toll Is Now Third in the Nation

The state’s daily death toll rose by roughly 50 percent Tuesday, with most in the Detroit area.

Michigan announced 75 new deaths from the coronavirus Tuesday, raising the state’s death toll to 259 and confirmed cases to 7,600, the Detroit Free Press reports. More than 80 percent of the fatalities occurred in the Detroit area, according to NPR, and the state is now third in the nation in its tally of deaths from COVID-19. Though Michigan instituted similar social distancing measures as its neighboring states at roughly the same time, cases of the virus have risen faster in the Great Lake State than elsewhere. Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin each have fewer than 2,200 cases. President Trump has feuded with Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, over her criticism of his late response to the virus, which she called “mind-boggling.” The United States now has 181,000 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, and 3,600 people have died.