Fred Romankewiz was on his way to get vaccinated, but he wasn’t feeling well, so he canceled the appointment and got a Covid-19 test instead. Although he was inches from the coronavirus finish line, the 54-year-old construction materials salesman from Lansing now tested positive.
“What’s really frustrating to me is that it’s been a year and three months now, and I played it to the tee. I mean, I did everything right,” said Romankewiz. “And then to make this happen.”
While watching TV, responding to a steady stream of text messages and joking from his hospital bed at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Romankewiz said he is optimistic about his prospects for a full recovery, but the virus has kept him low.
“I felt like I was going 10 laps with Mike Tyson,” he said. “I was absolutely physically exhausted. I mean I felt like I was beaten up, felt like I had been in a car accident. I mean it was crazy.”
Romankewiz, who lives a healthy life and has no underlying conditions, said he contracted the virus from his 19-year-old son Andy. His wife, Betsy, who has been fully vaccinated, also contracted the virus, but was suffering from mild symptoms.
Jim Dover, CEO and president of Sparrow Health System, a major healthcare provider in central Michigan, said two things are driving the current wave: pandemic fatigue and mutations in the coronavirus that have made it more contagious and potentially deadly.
“This variant is more virulent, and therefore more contagious, and therefore easier to catch,” said Dover. Second, everyone is tired of wearing masks, so you go out and you see a lack of social distance, the lack of masks. The virus is invisible and people didn’t know they were walking through a cloud of Covid, and then you know , they are infected. “
Dangerous variant is spreading through the state
At Beaumont Hospital’s Royal Oak, an institution of the largest health care provider in Wolverine state, the prevalence of variant B.1.1.7 is evident.
Dr. Justin Skrzynski is a Covid hospitalist – a title that didn’t exist a year ago – meaning he specializes in the care of Covid patients. He said they are sending a small sample of some of their cases to the state for DNA analysis.
“Right now, the regular Covid test we’re doing – that still shows only Covid (or) no Covid,” Skrzynski said. “But we’re sending a lot of it to the state and we’re now seeing about 40% of our patients (with) B.1.1.7.”
Tina Catron, 44, is in the care of Skrzynski at Beaumont Health’s Royal Oak facility. The mother of two said she thinks her family has become infected with the coronavirus through her children’s football league.
‘We’re not 100% sure,’ she said of how they all got it, ‘but we think from the football field, with the parents, even though we’re all masked. Everyone is shouting from the sidelines. And I think what happened is my husband was with my son, his soccer game. And he brought it home. “
Fight against the virus on many fronts
Michigan health officials have indicated that both schools and youth sports are potential vectors for the virus. Catron says her 9-year-old Levi and 7-year-old Jesse had no symptoms and that her husband became very ill but was not hospitalized.
She said she was shocked when she was hospitalized. She is healthy, active and has no underlying conditions, but had to be hospitalized after developing pneumonia.
“You feel like you’re choking a bit,” she said, clearing her throat and still struggling to breathe.
Michigan – whose Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has faced severe backlash from Republicans, business owners and others over its ongoing coronavirus restrictions – is fighting the virus on several fronts. Vaccinations are rolling, with about 600,000 Michiganders getting an injection every week; the economy is reopening and some restrictions are lifted; and many are returning to pre-pandemic lives without masks or social detachment.
The 40-49 age group shows a similar increase: 58 are taken daily compared to 33 during the autumn peak. Hospital admissions for over-60s have fallen sharply because vaccinations have increased.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says that 35.2% of adults in Michigan have received at least one dose of vaccine and 21.5% have been fully vaccinated.
Health workers were ‘thrown a curveball’
Dr. Lynda Misra, medical director of the Covid unit at Beaumont Health’s Royal Oak facility, said the number of cases has risen sharply and they are not sure where they are in this current wave. Whatever the outcome, she said, she and her staff will rise to the challenge, but the virus has proven resilient and tricky to combat.
“Each wave has presented different challenges,” she said. “We felt very strongly that we had attacked this disease, but then we get a curveball.”
The weight and pressure of the ongoing pandemic is evident when we speak to health professionals.
Lindsay Muenchen, a registered nurse in the Covid ward of Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, said she thought the worst was over. “The day I came in and saw that our ward was full of Covid patients again, it was very difficult,” she said. “I had tears in my eyes.”
Dora Hoppes, also at Sparrow Hospital, has worked as a nurse for 22 years. She said the last year has been the hardest.
Her voice broke and emotions surfaced at the first question of our short interview. When asked why it is so difficult to talk about the past year, she gestured down the hall. “I just saw it yesterday,” she said, holding back her tears. “I had a patient who died, so it’s very fresh every day.”
The stress of being constantly surrounded by so much illness and death is the hardest part of a job she loves, she said. “I would like to get to work right now and just take care of someone who is here because they need their gallbladder.”
CNN’s Linh Tran and Frank Bivona contributed to this report.