Editor's note: This story will be updated to include new information throughout the day.

Michigan marked its first death Wednesday in the global coronavirus pandemic as the case count rose to at least 116 in the state, and people continued to isolate themselves in their homes to try to prevent the spread of the virus.

A Southgate man in his 50s died early Wednesday morning at a Beaumont Hospital in Wayne County as a result of complications from COVID-19, the disease caused by novel coronavirus, according to Beaumont Health and the mayor of Southgate.

“It is with great sadness that we saw our first casualty of COVID-19 in Michigan. ... Our hearts go out to the family and friends who are surviving the man who passed away today,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The man had other underlying health conditions, and was among "dozens" of patients with novel coronavirus being treated at Beaumont's eight hospitals, said Dr. Nick Gilpin, Beaumont's medical director of infection, prevention and epidemiology.

Southgate Mayor Joseph Kuspa confirmed Wednesday evening that the man who died was a resident of the Downriver city.

"This is a challenge for all of us," Kuspa said. "It’s unprecedented times. We’re trying to heed the warnings on proper social distancing and the like. That’s how we’re going to make this work."

He said no additional details were given to city officials about the man who died.

"COVID-19 is in our community. It's with us," Gilpin said at a news conference Wednesday. "It's not just something that lives overseas anymore. It's in our backyard."

Gilpin declined to detail what city the man lived in, his age, underlying medical conditions or even which hospital treated him, citing patient privacy laws.

"This is a very serious situation," said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical officer for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. "As the situation continues to develop, we expect more cases, and unfortunately, we expect more fatalities.

"As of last night, Michigan had 80 confirmed cases of COVID-19. We know that so far today, there are at least 30 additional cases of COVID-19 here in the state of Michigan and we have many more tests running right now. These cases span at least 15 counties in our state with age ranges from children to over 80 years old.

"Of the cases that have been tested and have been positive, the majority have been individuals over age 60. Many of them are hospitalized and some of them are in intensive care in the hospital."

Some of the people with COVID-19 in Michigan have a history of travel, both internationally and in the U.S., but for others, there appears to be community spread.

The number of COVID-19 patients in Oakland County is higher than the state's latest update, said Bill Mullan, media and communications officer for Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter.

Oakland County alone now has 59 cases, Mullan said, bringing the statewide total to at least 116.

Testing capacity is limited

The U.S. testing capacity for novel coronavirus was snarled from the start by technical glitches with the tests the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created for use in its labs and distributed to some state and local laboratories.

The CDC initially developed test kits with three components, or reagents, to detect the COVID-19 virus. Some states had trouble validating one of three components in the kits.

It wasn't until Feb. 28 that the agency discovered that the tests would accurately work by leaving out the faulty reagent, using the remaining two components to detect novel coronavirus.

Since then, state and local public health labs, private and commercial labs have been scrambling to adapt the CDC's tests to work in their laboratories, or develop their own systems — with Food and Drug Administration authorization — for testing for COVID-19.

More updates on coronavirus in Michigan

On Monday, Henry Ford Health System became the first hospital system in Michigan to adapt the CDC test and process it in its lab in Detroit. It now can now get same-day results with its test and has capacity to run about 100 samples a day. Its goal is to ramp up being able to process to at least 1,000 tests daily in April.

On Tuesday, Beaumont developed a system to process tests purchased from a commercial vendor in its labs. The health system processed about 500 COVID-19 tests on the first day. Since March 12, the health system says it has sent 1,100 other COVID-19 tests to the state and other national labs for testing.

Khaldun said it takes the MDHHS lab two to three days to process a test, and it is ramping up its capacity with a goal of being able to test more than 200 samples a day by the end of this week.

“We don’t have enough tests. We don’t have enough resources to process the tests," said Khaldun. "We set up our own state lab. But at this point, we’re concerned about the system being overtaxed and not having enough tests that we believe are necessary.

“The country overall was behind when we started testing.”

Because of a national shortage of tests and testing supplies, Whitmer said it's important for people to understand that not everyone who has novel coronavirus symptoms — cough, fever, shortness of breath — should be tested.

“With the tests we have, we have to prioritize who the test is being given to," she said. "I haven’t been tested, I have no known exposure and I don’t want to add a burden on the health system."

Gilpin agreed.

"A lot of patients who are experiencing relatively mild symptoms, who don't have underlying medical conditions, who are young and otherwise healthy, frankly do not need to be tested," he said.

“... We don’t have the capacity to test all of you. There’s a very good chance that many of you may have COVID-19, frankly, and testing you is not going to necessarily make a difference with regard to how we treat you.”

Instead, people with mild symptoms should stay at home and isolate themselves, practicing social distancing — keeping at least 6 feet between yourself and other people, practice good hand hygiene, and clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces.

People who are having severe symptoms and difficulty breathing, older people and people with underlying health problems such as lung disease, diabetes, heart disease and immune system disorders are at higher risk for complications from COVID-19 and testing might be recommended for them if they develop symptoms, Gilpin said.

Beaumont has a hotline at 800-592-4784 and launched an online risk assessment tool at www.beaumont.org/coronavirus to help people determine whether testing is right for them, he said.

"This is an unprecedented situation in Michigan, and across the country that we're dealing with right now," Gilpin said "I'm incredibly proud of our team at Beaumont and I'm incredibly proud of all my brothers and sisters in health care across the country. We're battling this situation."

As testing increases, more cases expected

Dr. Russell Faust, medical director for the Oakland County Health Division, said the COVID-19 case counts are likely to rise dramatically now that testing is becoming more widely available — not just because there are more cases of the disease but also because more people are being tested.

“We know it’s in the community. The majority of our cases are community acquired. (The individuals) haven’t been out of southeast Michigan. We all need to face that and take precautions,” Faust said.

In addition to social distancing, good hygiene and staying home when you’re sick, Faust recommended residents get a flu shot because influenza is still spreading widely in the community as well.

Because COVID-19 is a new disease, public health researchers and medical professionals are still trying to understand it.

The virus is thought to spread mainly among people who have close contact with one another, within about 6 feet, or through others inhaling respiratory droplets produced when a person coughs or sneezes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some spread of the disease might be possible before an infected person shows any symptoms and by touching contaminated surfaces.

Nationally, more than 7,760 COVID-19 cases were reported across the U.S. as of Wednesday, with at least 118 total deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Global Case Tracker. Cases were reported in all 50 U.S. states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the CDC.

Globally, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday that there were 207,860 cases, with 8,657 deaths in 166 countries, with the majority of cases and deaths coming from China, Italy, Iran, Spain and South Korea.

For information on how to protect yourself from coronavirus infection, or what to do if you think you are sick, visit the CDC website at cdc.gov/coronavirus or www.michigan.gov/coronavirus.

Free Press staff writer Keith Matheny contributed to this report.