ESCANABA — Delta County is leading the Upper Peninsula in COVID-related deaths in 2025. Two deaths have been reported by the Michigan Department of Human Services in the county in the past two weeks.

According to MDHHS, Delta County saw one death the week of Jan. 18 and one the week of Jan. 25. Two other deaths have been reported this month in the U.P., one in Gogebic County the week of Jan. 4 and one in Chippewa County the week of Jan. 25.

The deaths in Delta County come as the amount of detectable viral DNA in the city’s sewer water is beginning to moderate. According to the Sentinel Wastewater Epidemiology Evaluation Project, or SWEEP, the last sample submitted to the project, which was dated for Jan. 15, contained more viral DNA than 58% of samples submitted by the Escanaba Wastewater Plant since the city began participating in the program in August 2021. The sample immediately prior to that sample, which was dated for Jan. 13, contained 49% more viral DNA than all other samples.

While sewer data provides a barometer for increases and decreases in viral activity, it is a poor gauge of how many people are ill or how severe cases of the COVID-19 may be. Even within individuals viral load can vary greatly and some people who have the disease may not show symptoms.

Statewide, the number of daily cases of COVID-19 identified by MDHHS in healthcare settings is significantly lower than the number of cases identified by the department at the same time in 2023 or 2024. For the week of Jan. 25, 2,315 cases were reported statewide, down from 4,973 during the equivalent week of 2024 and 6,138 the equivalent week of 2023.

In Delta County, however, the number of cases is much higher than in past years, with 35 cases reported the week of Jan. 25 this year, 14 for the equivalent week of 2023, and 18 for the equivalent week in 2024.

Historically, Delta County has had a higher-than-average mortality rate for COVID-19 when compared with the peninsula as a whole. By this time in 2024, three people had died of the virus. In 2023, four people died the week of Jan. 14 alone, with a fifth death rounding out the month the week of Jan. 28.

Delta County’s is also much more erratic than the state as a whole when it comes to the number of cases. When graphed together, the state’s 2023 and 2024 caseloads follow a similar pattern that 2025 also appears to be following. If that holds true, the state will likely see a small spike in the coming weeks before dropping and remaining low until sometime between mid-June and mid-July.

Delta County, on the other hand, has only seen predictable falls in the beginning of the year and a relatively low number of cases between April and July. Spikes in the data appear much more erratically and sharply, though that may be attributed in part to individual cases having much more influence on the data due to the county’s lower population.

For the Upper Peninsula, the number of MDHHS-confirmed cases for the week of Jan. 25, by county: Delta, 35, one death; Marquette, 20; Menominee, 14; Chippewa, 11, one death; Dickinson, 6; Houghton, 5; Gogebic, Luce and Iron counties, 4; Mackinac, 2; Alger, Ontonagon and Schoolcraft, 1; and Baraga and Keweenaw, 0.