COVID-19 Hospitalizations Are Up, But Health Experts Say No Shutdown Now

Despite the next round of COVID-19 spikes in Michigan, the state’s health experts are standing against the possibility of returning to a statewide shutdown.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has not implemented another stay-at-home order, though she did when the virus was spreading in spring, WXYZ noted Thursday (November 12).

"The virus doesn't move on its own, it spreads through us," Beaumont CEO John Fox said. "The tools to control it are there and accessible. We just have to constantly emphasize that in any way we can."

Henry Ford Health System CEO Wright Lassiter III added that it’s not clear whether it “will be enough” to ask citizens to rely on precautions. If not, “other steps will end up being necessary” at that time.

Although healthcare professionals aren’t pushing for a shutdown, COVID-19 hospitalizations are surging.

Figures double every two weeks, and cases rise “exponentially,” the Detroit Free Press reported Thursday (November 12).

"At that pace, we will top our late spring hospitalization peak this month," said Gerry Anderson, executive chairman of DTE Energy and a leader of the Michigan Economic Recovery Council. “This rate of increase is pressuring health care systems and frontline workers across the state, and that is only going to intensify.”

Whitmer projected that the state could reach 100 COVID-19 deaths daily by December, the Free Press noted.

Michigan has tracked more than 251,000 cases and more than 8,000 deaths as of Wednesday (November 11), the latest data available.

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