Leaders of the Henry Ford Health System provided an update Thursday morning on the status of COVID hospitalizations and the virus’ impact on operations.
Here’s what you missed: 49 things Henry Ford Health leaders said about current COVID situation in Michigan
Henry Ford Health officials also focused Thursday on the deployment of the federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team and the blood supply shortage.
For the past several weeks, Metro Detroit health systems have been sounding the alarm regarding rising COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations. Partly driven by the highly contagious omicron COVID variant, the virus has been spreading at record levels across the region and throughout the state of Michigan.
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Last week, the state reported more than 20,000 new COVID-19 cases per day for the first time since the pandemic began. The 7-day positive COVID testing rate has risen above 33% within the last few weeks -- and health officials previously said the goal is to be around 3%.
Also last week, HFHS said that nearly 700 employees tested positive for COVID, with a positive test rate of about 41.8%. The health system said the following weeks would be difficult, with fewer employees to assist with growing virus hospitalizations.
Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital said on Thursday that a medical team from the military is coming to assist as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to spike.
“When we look at our new cases, our weekly cases per 100,000, we’re now at a point that we have not seen through this pandemic,” Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, of MDHHS, said earlier this week. “This is the highest number of weekly cases we’ve ever had.”
More: Michigan COVID coverage