LANSING, Mich. – A bill aimed at keeping some of our state’s most vulnerable people from being exposed to coronavirus (COVID-19) cleared a hurdle in the State Senate.
That bill would barr COVID-19 patients from being placed in Michigan nursing homes.
Michigan State Senator Peter Lucido said today is a good day.
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“What happened this afternoon was the following, the Senate took a vote on Senate Bill 956 which allowed COVID patients, who are positive, not to be put in the nursing homes ever again with those who are non-COVID,” Lucido said.
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Senate Bill 956 passed through Michigan Senate with no problems.
“We needed this more than ever because of the following: We were having too many elderly, most vulnerable people to get the disease and die,” Lucido said.
That’s why Lucido said he had to fight Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s original nursing home decision that allowed elderly patients with COVID-19 to live in the same facility as patients without COVID-19.
Lucido said that just didn’t make sense.
“At the end of the day I had two doctors who testified about the health policy and they unequivocally said this is not a standard of care, that we could support,” Lucido said.
Wednesday, Whitmer addressed her critics.
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“Yeah, I would say, we need to remember where we were 10 weeks ago. When we seen exponential growth, where we had hospitals at capacity, where we only had enough PPE for each shift. We were following, what should be the gold standard, which is the CDC standard and that’s what we were following at the time,” said Whitmer.
Whitmer said she was then, and is now, simply trying to keep everyone safe.
“In retrospect, are there things that we could do differently with all of the information that we now have? Absolutely. In the moment, just like right now, we are trying to learn from the very best, understand as much as we can about this disease to do everything we can to protect people.”
The bill will go to the house next, and if it passes the house the Governor will have 12 days to either sign it or veto.