Health

A federal appeals court in Ohio has denied a request from some Michigan farms to suspend testing requirements for Michigan workers while it makes a decision about the related lawsuit.

The White House’s coronavirus response coordinator visited Michigan Wednesday.

Dr. Deborah Birx met with Governor Gretchen Whitmer to discuss the state’s response to the pandemic.

Birx says schools should have strong testing plans to find asymptomatic spread when it occurs, but she says some institutions are facing challenges.

The race for a COVID-19 vaccine is picking up as three medical centers in Michigan now are involved in Phase 3 clinical trials of three different vaccine candidates. The hope is at least one of them will prove to be safe and effective in preventing the disease that has killed more than 183,000 Americans.

Advocates for migrant workers voiced their support on Thursday for a state order that requires farm operators to test their employees for COVID-19. 

The order, which also applies to food processing facilities and migrant labor camps, has faced legal resistance from Michigan farmers. 

Soon you’re going to see Rona on billboards, hear Rona on the radio, and Rona will pop up on some of your favorite social media sites. Rona is a new ad campaign to get young adults to protect themselves from the coronavirus.

Rona – as in co-RONA-virus – is a red dot wearing sunglasses, described as a mischievous, malevolent character bent on infecting Michiganders who let down their guard. It has several arms that cannot quite reach six feet away.

Flint residents are getting extra help dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic through a program set up after the city’s water crisis.

The program was created to help people affected by Flint’s lead tainted drinking water. 

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha discovered evidence that the change of Flint’s drinking water source led to a spike in blood lead levels in Flint children in 2015.     She also played a significant role in creating the Flint registry.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services confirmed 14 school-related outbreaks of COVID-19. The MDHHS did not provide the specific locations of the outbreaks, saying that “infectious disease outbreaks are not commonly announced to the media, unless there is broad risk to the general public and all people exposed cannot be notified.”

An outbreak, in this case, is generally considered to mean two or more cases with a common source of exposure. It is unknown how many cases are connected to the 14 outbreaks.

The City of Flint has a new deadline to replace lead water service lines in its neighborhoods.

Mayor Sheldon Neeley said during a press conference Thursday that the city had agreed with the Natural Resources Defense Council to extend the deadline for replacing the pipes to November 30.

“We’re pleased to say that we came to a negotiated term, with the NRDC, that gives us an extended period of time to make sure that we get to every resident,” he said.

University of Michigan faculty and staff will soon be asked to use an app to monitor themselves for COVID-19 symptoms.

Dr. Robert Ernst is the executive director of the University Health Service.

He says the app, called ResponsiBLUE, will be available in the app store in the coming days. 

Detroit area residents who are older than 50 tend to die earlier compared to people older than 50 in other parts of the state.

That’s according to a study from the Detroit Area Agency on Aging and researchers at Wayne State University.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says her office might bring charges against long-term care facilities that don’t follow an executive order designed to protect residents and staff. 

“Willful violations of this executive order are considered a misdemeanor offense, which carry a $500 fine and/or 90 days in jail,” read a Thursday press release. 

All but one of Michigan’s 21 regional hubs for nursing home patients recovering from COVID-19  have been cited for an infection-control deficiency in the last four years, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

Four of those facilities were cited for infection-control violations that occurred in the weeks just before the state designated them as hubs. 

Some of the first volunteers in a new COVID-19 vaccine trial received their injections at Henry Ford Health System on Wednesday.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer is extending the mask requirement to include children as young as two years old in some cases, after several coronavirus outbreaks linked to childcare centers and youth camps.

Gov. Whitmer says by requiring face coverings in her latest executive order, childcare centers and camps can remain open while keeping children and staff members safe.

The Michigan Farm Bureau has some concerns about a state emergency order that agricultural and food processing workers get tested for COVID-19.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued an emergency order on Monday.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer has vetoed a bill that would have had serious implications for nursing home residents recovering from COVID-19. 

Senator Peter Lucido (R-Shelby Charter Township) was the bill’s sponsor. He’s says that the governor’s policy of placing recovering COVID patients in so-called regional hubs has resulted in loss of lives. 

The State of Michigan hopes a new initiative will reduce its growing Hepatitus C treatment costs for state prison inmates and people with Medicaid and Healthy Michigan Plan insurance. 

Chronic Hepatitis C is a serious liver infection that can result in cirrhosis or cancer. 

Governor Gretchen Whitmer says beginning Friday, indoor gatherings statewide will be limited to 10 people and bars will be closed for indoor service across the entire state, including in Regions 6 and 8 (the Traverse City area and the Upper Peninsula). 

More people are overdosing on opioids since the beginning of the pandemic. Dr. Joneigh Khaldun is the Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan. She says the number of Emergency Medical Services responses to opioid overdoses has jumped since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“Between April to June, there was a 26 percent increase in E.M.S. responses for opioid overdoses compared to the same period of time in 2019," Khaldun explained.

A Gladwin summer camp has been closed after reporting a coronavirus outbreak.

The Springs Ministries summer camp in Gladwin closed last week after two members tested positive for coronavirus.

Now, according to a Gladwin county health official as many as 28 attendees have tested positive for the virus.

Henry Ford Health System will recruit up to 5,000 participants for a phase-three COVID-19 vaccine trial.

In late May, the Kalamazoo County Health Department joined what looked to be a promising COVID-19 testing effort. 

Working with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the state police, three-person teams from the Michigan National Guard fanned across the state, testing staff and residents in long-term care facilities, inmates in county jails, and thousands of individuals at temporary drive-through sites. 

Michigan’s House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that seeks to establish entirely separate facilities for nursing home residents with COVID-19. 

The state Senate has already voted in favor of the bill.