Michigan now is regarded as the state with the fastest spread of the Coronavirus in the nation. But so far, Allegan County has dodged the worst of the consequences.

There have been no deaths reported by the Allegan County Health Department in the past five weeks, but 505 cases have been reported in the past two weeks and the positivity rate has reached 10.7 percent. The number of hospitalizations is 199 and the number of deaths has remained at 118.

The number of daily cases on average over a seven-day period has neared 40, a striking increase from the 7.7 figure that was reported Feb. 21.

Michigan and Allegan County have fared remarkably well since the start of the year 2021, but a new surge is suspected to have gotten under way since March 1.

Superintendents from schools all over the county earlier this week issued a plea to students and parents to strictly observe Covid safety protocols during spring break, which will get under way next Monday.

The Wayland and Martin girls’ basketball teams will play in the state quarterfinals Monday in Divisions 2 and 4, respectively, so they won’t be going out of state soon.

There still are persistent indications of the presence of the United Kingdom’s Covid variant, the highly contagious B.1.1.7, which has been identified somewhere in the county.