The Henry Ford Health System held a press briefing on some hopeful signs in their system.
Michigan reported 86,009 new cases of COVID-19 and 501 virus-related deaths Wednesday -- an average of 17,201.8 cases over the past five days. Wednesday’s update brings the total number of confirmed COVID cases in Michigan to 1,832,716, including 28,980 deaths.
Based on those numbers, Local 4 Dr. Frank McGeorge said he is going to still stay optimistic and hope we’re seeing a continued plateau or hopefully a decrease in case counts. It’s worth noting that Michigan is a big state and not all of Michigan started the current omicron spike at the same time. Some counties are going to have different levels of activity.
Read: Michigan hospital officials cite first signs of early progress since COVID omicron surge
That said, if the Henry Ford Health System is used to gauge activity in Southeast Michigan then the trend is also favorable.
“After weeks and weeks of giving you really sobering news, I’m really happy to report that we are starting -- I emphasize starting -- to see a trend that we hope will continue of decreased hospitalization. Overall, our census for COVID hospitalizations have declined since Monday when we had 551 patients hospitalized with COVID to this morning that number being 499. That number includes two children under the age of 17,” Henry Ford’s Chief Operating Officer Bob Riney said.
Although the numbers are all moving in a good direction he emphasized something else that is making a difference.
“The data on people being hospitalized without a booster is quite striking, underscoring the importance and benefit of that third dose for added protection -- more than 90% of all hospitalized people for COVID or in an ICU or on a ventilator did not receive a booster,” Riney said.
Read: Michigan reports 86,009 new COVID cases, 501 deaths -- average of 17,202 cases per day
They also discussed the ongoing nursing crisis, of course COVID is making it worse, but even if COVID went away tomorrow we would still have a severe nursing shortage. To help relieve it, Henry Ford has embarked on two initiatives they are recruiting nurses from the Philippines and they hope to have the first group begin in the summer. They are also recruiting heavily from the MSU nursing school partnered with Henry Ford.
Some regions on the East Coast look like they’ve peaked from their omicron surge. The rise and fall nationally might look more drawn out.
Read: Complete Michigan COVID coverage