West Nile virus found in Troy
No human cases confirmed, county urges precautions
It’s been an exhausting 16 months for health care workers in the battle against COVID-19 which is complicated by the delta variant.
Now their exhaustion is paired with frustration because of the large number of people who are not vaccinated.
“After having seen three surges in this pandemic, none of us want to see a fourth surge in Michigan. … Our hospital staff, our health workers are exhausted and they are really frustrated. They are frustrated because people are refusing vaccines and then they are seeing some of these people being admitted to the hospital sick and some of them dying. And these are things we can prevent with something as simple as a shot in the arm,’’ Dr. Adnan Munkarah, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Henry Ford Health System, said during a media briefing on Wednesday.
Currently there are 48 COVID patients spread across the five Henry Ford hospitals including two in West Bloomfield and 16 in Macomb. Of the 48, 45 are unvaccinated.
Vaccinations are the key to stopping the spread of the virus.
Yet in Michigan only about 64% of those 16 and older have had at least the first shot. The vaccine, which is free, is widely available.
The number of hospitalizations at Henry Ford has doubled in the past two weeks.
“There is no doubt that this current surge is being fueled by the number of unvaccinated people being infected with the highly contagious delta variant,’’ Munkarah said.
“I want to assure the community that our staff is dedicated to make sure they are taking care of the patients, but as a provider there is nothing more frustrating than when you see a patient, a member of the community, who is having a disease we know we could have prevented,’’ Munkarah added.
While there have been improvements in the way COVID is treated the options are limited. Also, health care workers know that patients can have longterm side effects.
“When our staff looks at the patient they are taking care of, they see they are getting sick, they see they may have long-term side effects from the disease and mostly when they see somebody lose their life
to a disease that we can prevent 99% of the time,’’ Munkarah said. “At least we can prevent it from taking somebody’s life 99% of the time. This is what elevates their level of frustration because they know we can put this behind us.’’
Munkarah wants to curtail the fourth surge and get back to more of a normal
summer.
He is asking for two things.
First, get more people vaccinated.
“Time is of the essence. What we have predicted weeks ago is that too many people are still unvaccinated. We are going to see this virus continue to transmit in the community, mutate and become more infective. This is what we are seeing at the present time with the delta variant,’’ Munkarah said.
Secondly, he recommends wearing masks indoors for those who are vaccinated and those who aren’t.
“We hate to be in the position where we feel it’s a step back, but the reality is we have 30 counties in Michigan that have transmission rates that are high or substantial by CDC criteria,’’ Munkarah said.
Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties are among those with a substantial rating of more than 50 COVID cases per 100,000 on a seven-day average.