Health

The spread of novel coronavirus is rampant in Michigan right now, making every trip to the grocery store, every visit to a loved one, a risky endeavor.

The number of inmates in Michigan prisons testing positive for COVID-19 has more than doubled in just two weeks.

Currently, 2,790 inmates are considered active positive cases.  The number was about 1,200 two weeks ago. The largest number of cases are at Handlon, Brooks, and Central Michigan correctional facilities, with smaller outbreaks at the Bellamy, Egeler, Ionia and Newland facilities.

Corrections Department spokesman Chris Gautz says the dramatic spike reflects what is happening outside the prisons as well.

A potential COVID-19 vaccine tested at Henry Ford Health System is showing promising early results.

Interim data for the vaccine, developed by the drug company Moderna and the National Institutes of Health, shows 94.5% efficacy in producing antibodies that defend against the virus.

Detroit is stepping up enforcement of COVID-19 protocols on city businesses, urging residents to call the health department if they see a business flouting the rules, such as not requiring employees and customers to wear masks or physically distance.

Mayor Mike Duggan says an inspector will go to that business immediately, and inspectors have been given the authority to issue a $1,000 fine or even shut the business down if necessary.

Michigan’s surging COVID-19 case numbers are straining many local efforts to track down people who may be infected.

State health officials added another 12,763 confirmed coronavirus cases Monday, which also includes tests from Sunday. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Michigan has recorded 264,576 COVID-19 cases. A total of 8,049 Michiganders have died from the illness. 

Michigan Republican Congressman Tim Walberg (MI-7) has tested positive for COVID-19. 

Walberg – who was recently re-elected – took to Facebook to inform the public he tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.

Michigan State University will conduct a study into how to communicate the need for antibody tests for COVID-19 in communities that are often mistrustful of government health campaigns, and with good reason.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s administration on Sunday ordered high schools and colleges to stop in-person classes, closed restaurants to indoor dining and suspended organized sports — including the football playoffs — in a bid to curb the state’s spiking coronavirus cases.

Michigan marked its worst week yet in the coronavirus pandemic as 44,019 people were newly diagnosed and 416 died.

The unprecedented surge sparked a cascade of school and college campus closures, along with shuttered city halls in Warren and Grosse Pointe and a warning from some hospital systems that they're nearing capacity as sick patients flood emergency rooms.

Inside Mercy Health’s gleaming new hospital tower along US-31 in Muskegon, four full floors are now filled with COVID-19 patients. More people are in the emergency room, waiting for beds to open up. Nurses are working grueling 16-hour shifts, racing between rooms, trying to keep up with the growing onslaught of sick patients.

“It has been so stressful and chaotic and heartbreaking, to say the least,” says one worker who helps treat COVID patients at Mercy Health Muskegon.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer, along with Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, will be giving an update on COVID-19 in Michigan at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday. You can watch their comments in the live video below.  

Michigan's largest school district will suspend in-person classes next week, joining other districts that have shifted to online-only classes as coronavirus cases rise significantly around the state.

Michigan health officials plan to study the potential long-term health effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure on people in four West Michigan communities.

PFAS are a class of industrial chemicals linked to health problems like cancer, and thyroid disease. Known as “forever chemicals” that remain intact in the environment and human bodies for a long time, PFAS are present in substances ranging from firefighting foam to food packaging.

Michigan’s coronavirus cases just keep going up, as the state broke yet another record for the number of COVID-19 cases reported in one day on Tuesday.

That daily number was 6,473. Over the past week, the state has reported on average more than 5,000 new confirmed cases per day. Those numbers are far higher than we ever saw in the spring, when COVID-19 testing was far more limited.

The COVID-19 pandemic has closed the Hamtramck city clerk’s office, after City Clerk August Gitschlag and two employees tested positive for the disease.

The office closed on Monday. Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski told the Detroit Free Press that for the time being, all clerk-related business will be handled through the city manager’s office. Hamtramck city hall remains open.

Warren Mayor Jim Fouts has closed city hall after a number of employees there tested positive for COVID-19, along with several police officers and district court staff. 

"We're taking every possible precaution because it's important," says Fouts. "We don't want it to spread, we don't want any of our valued employees to get sick, and we don't want of the people who come to city hall to get sick." 

The public health capacity to deal with contact tracing of COVID-19 cases is becoming overwhelmed, according to Susan Ringler-Cerniglia, Communications and Health Promotion Administrator for the Washtenaw County Health Department.

She says her staff is exhausted, after working overtime and weekends for months.

Flu shot clinics are scheduled at baseball stadiums in Detroit and Lansing Monday and Tuesday. It’s part of a push to get millions of Michiganders vaccinated.

On Friday, state health officials reported nearly 2.4 million Michiganders have received their influenza vaccine this season. The state is more than halfway towards its goal of 4.2 million flu vaccinations. Last year more than three million Michiganders got their flu shot.

The University of Michigan is telling undergrad students who don't need to live on campus to study online from home for the winter semester.

Given the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases in the county, as well as hospitalizations, that's the right call, according to Susan Ringler-Cerniglia of the Washtenaw County Health Department.

"In the dorm settings or some of these off campus houses where many students live together, it's very, very difficult to have good distance or more separation," says Ringler-Cerniglia.

The state of Michigan has reached a milestone in the COVID-19 pandemic, with the state recording more than 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases.  

Among the latest to test positive is a top state lawmaker.

State Senator Jim Ananich announced his positive test on Twitter.

Ottawa County says it can no longer trace all the contacts for people who test positive for COVID-19. There are just too many cases.

In the past two weeks alone, the Ottawa County Health Department says it’s identified a “staggering” number of new cases – 2,200 in all.

As COVID-19 cases continue to surge eastward through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the reality at tiny War Memorial Hospital can be counted on the fingers of hospital CEO David Jahn.

Six. That’s the number of intensive care beds at War Memorial. On Thursday, five of those beds were filled; one with a COVID patient.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill into law Thursday that will give people more information about COVID-19’s impact on nursing homes. 

Starting November 15, the law requires the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to post weekly reports with information such as current visitation policies and the number of new cases and deaths among residents and staff.