COVID-19 metrics have been rising in the northern and western United States in recent weeks after a surge in the South over the summer. Case counts and hospitalizations have increased considerably in Michigan and Minnesota, which now have two of the top case rates nationwide. Michigan saw only a few hundred cases per day throughout the summer. Nearly 8,000 were recorded on Nov. 15—the highest since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Hospitalizations are also up, with 88 percent of hospital beds filled as of Friday. Nine hospitals say they’re full. “Our hospitals have more COVID patients than they’ve had since the spring surge, and that should be alarming to all of us because that is with more overall population vaccinated than before,” Bob Riney, the CEO of the Henry Ford Health System, told reporters during a recent briefing. In Minnesota, cases and hospitalizations are the highest since the devastating wave seen in …