DETROIT – Michigan health officials reported 21,034 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday. That’s an average of 7,011.3 cases over the past three days.
After the sharp spike in new cases, the Henry Ford Health System is joining in with other healthcare systems warning that the situation is again worsening.
Read: Michigan reports 21,034 new COVID cases, 95 deaths -- average of 7,011 cases per day
Dr. Frank McGeorge works in the emergency department at Henry Ford Hospital and said their ER and emergency departments across Metro Detroit, in every major healthcare system, have been overloaded.
“If we don’t curb the current growth of COVID inpatient hospitalizations there are only so many team members and so many beds in a community and the math will not work and we will have to curtail other operations,” Henry Ford Health System’s president and chief operating officer Bob Riney said. “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.”
This doesn’t suggest the vaccines aren’t working. Dr. Adnan Munkarah presented a slide showing that 69% of the patients admitted to Henry Ford are unvaccinated. Health officials said the majority of people who are in the intensive care unit or on a ventilator are unvaccinated individuals.
Read: Michigan reaches 70% COVID vaccination mark for residents 16 and older
The New York Times COVID data tracker currently has Michigan with the nation’s highest daily case average per hundred thousand people. And in terms of the number of daily new cases, Michigan is now at the exact same place it was before the last winter surge.
Although we have many people vaccinated, behaviors have changed. Fewer people are wearing masks when they should, kids are in school, distancing rules are relaxed. Those changes are going to offset some of the vaccine gains. The bottom line is the vaccine is critical, but so is behaving smartly.
The dynamic of the surge has been different. The increase has been slow, but relentlessly persistent -- until the sharp increase that was announced Monday.
Read: Complete Michigan COVID coverage