Busy Week With COVID News In Michigan – Everything You Need To Know

It’s been an extremely busy week for COVID-related topics in Michigan, from debates over a new shutdown to filling hospitals quickly to another six months of work restrictions.

If you’ve had trouble keeping track of everything or just want a refresher course, we’ve listed all the key COVID-19 topics below.

Everyone wants to know if Michigan will close again because of the rising totals. As Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the chief medical executive for Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said Wednesday, the case and the state’s positivity figures are five times the size of two months ago

But Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been pushing throughout the week that her government has no intention of imposing additional restrictions on top of those already existing. These include rules regarding meetings, capacity limits in restaurants and masks.

MOREMichigan Still Not Enacting New COVID-19 Restrictions – Here’s Why

Monday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, is clear she believes Michigan should close

“The answer to that is to really shut things down, go back to our base, go back to where we were last spring, last summer, and shut things down to flatten the curve,” Walensky said.

When Whitmer held her Wednesday briefing, her position had not changed.

“At this point, we know that the tools we have at our disposal that can most dramatically improve outcomes for people in this state are vaccines, which is why we are moving so quickly to get people vaccinated,” Whitmer said.

The governor’s position is essentially this: she believes the spread of COVID-19 can be slowed with the rules already in place. She thinks the problem is a combination of non-compliance, more contagious variants, and reservoirs from people without antibodies.

RELATED: Why Whitmer says Michigan’s low COVID rates at the start of the pandemic are contributing to the current spike

Last week, she asked Michiganders not to dine indoors in restaurants for two weeks, participate in youth sports, or get together with people from other households. But those remain recommendations, not rules, she said.

Dr. Nick Gilpin, the medical director of infection prevention for Beaumont Health, spoke Thursday about hospital capacity and agreed with Walensky.

“If you also look back on our previous peaks, what was the difference?” Gilpin asked. “The difference from the first wave we experienced is that there were community constraints to limit the size of the collections and indoor activities, which we know are very effective ways of transmitting coronavirus. We saw it in March and April last year. We saw it in the fall and winter months in Michigan, and both peaks, I think, have warped in part due to active restraints. “

When asked directly if he believes Michigan should be closed, Gilpin said he believes Michigan needs more restrictions to combat this wave.

“I think we do need to have a degree of commitment to limit some of those activities in the community,” Gilpin said.

Whitmer wants the federal government to send additional vaccines to Michigan because of the rapid spread of COVID-19 here. But that’s not part of the national vaccination plan.

READ: Whitmer asks to send additional vaccines to Michigan ‘COVID hotspot’

“There are different tools we can use for different periods of when there is an outbreak,” Walensky said. “For example, we know that if vaccines are put into use today, depending on the vaccine, we will see no effect from those vaccines for 2-6 weeks.

“I think if we try to work our way out of what is happening in Michigan, we would be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work and actually take effect. Likewise, we need that vaccine in other places. If we vaccinate today and we’ll have an impact in six weeks, and we don’t know where the next place will be that will rise. “

Andy Slavitt, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, agreed.

“We have to remember that in the next 2-6 weeks, the variants we saw in Michigan – those variants will be in other states as well,” Slavitt said. “So our ability to quickly vaccinate people in each of those states, instead of taking vaccines and switching it to hitting, is not the strategy that public health leaders and scientists have set.”

The other big vaccine news of the week is that Michigan will follow the recommendations of the FDA and CDC Temporarily interrupt the administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Of the 6.8 million people nationwide who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, officials have identified six women who subsequently developed a rare blood clot, according to experts.

“With an abundance of caution, we are following the recommendations of the FDA and CDC and are pausing the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Michigan,” Khaldun announced.

While these cases of blood clots are extremely rare – only six in 6.8 million – experts research to be on the safe side.

For now, any Michigander scheduled to receive a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine must proceed as planned, and anyone who was supposed to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine must either reschedule or one of the other brands received, officials said.

Michigan has expanded the COVID workplace rules which were already in place, and they are now in effect until October 14.

The six-month extension means that all employees who can feasibly work from home should do so to reduce the chance of COVID-19 spreading.

READ: Do COVID Rules in the Michigan Workplace Mean Employees Cannot Return to Personal Work?

Personal work is allowed for tasks that cannot be performed anywhere else, but remote work is highly recommended.

Personal companies must maintain a written COVID-19 preparedness and response plan and provide in-depth training for employees. That training should cover infection control practices in the workplace, the use of personal protective equipment, steps to notify the company of COVID-19 symptoms, and reporting unsafe working conditions.

Federal officials announced extended unemployment benefits will no longer be available for Michiganders after this week. They will officially expire on Saturday.

Those benefits are ending because the state unemployment rate has fallen below the required threshold. Extended benefits come into effect when the overall unemployment rate averages 6.5% or higher for three consecutive months.

The United States Department of Labor has informed the Michigan Un Employment Insurance Agency that the program will no longer be paid after this week. UIA officials have begun notifying the 16,000 applicants currently receiving extended benefits of the end of the program.

The Comprehensive Benefits Program provided additional benefits for 13-20 weeks for people who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits and other extensions.

Michigan officials said the state has paid about $ 419 million in comprehensive benefits since the high unemployment rates triggered the program.

Gilpin said most of the hospitals in Beaumont are nearing capacity. He expects them to hit their ceiling soon.

“It’s tight,” Gilpin said. “Every day, all of our sites come together very actively to see what they can do to create space.”

Susan Grant, Beaumont Health’s chief nurse, said that as of Thursday morning (April 15), most hospitals in Beaumont have between 90% and 95% capacity.

During the second wave in Michigan this winter, Beaumont cared for more than 700 COVID-19 patients in his eight-hospital system, Gilpin said. At the moment there are more than 800 patients.

Gilpin compared it to “a runaway train.”

“If we keep seeing the number of COVID numbers increasing, we’ll have to make some accommodations, open some extra beds, but again, the challenge here and the theme of the day is where do we get that staff from?” Gilpin said.

Grant said nurses and hospital workers are physically and emotionally exhausted. Some nurses opt for early retirement, others leave the profession completely.

“We worry about it every day, and unfortunately we’re already seeing it,” said Grant. ‘It is very worrying.

“At this time last year, none of us could have imagined that, during that extremely difficult time, we would be back this year, at the same time. That we would work and see so many patients infected with the corona virus. Hundreds and hundreds of them come through our emergency rooms. “

Mayor of Detroit Mike Duggan is concerned about hospital capacity and vaccination coverage in the city.

Of the 22 Detroit residents who died from COVID-19 in the first 10 days of April, 10 were 70 and older and have been eligible for the vaccine since January, he said.

“Many of these tragic deaths were preventable,” Duggan tweeted. “Our hospitals have grown enormously with COVID-19 patients. Now that COVID-19 vaccines are more accessible than ever, I urge Detroiters to get vaccinated as soon as possible. “

He said Detroiters aren’t getting vaccinated enough. Vaccine arrangements with Moderna and Pfizer remain widely available.

“Compared to surrounding counties and suburbs, vaccination rates in Detroit are extremely low,” Duggan tweeted.

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