Latest COVID boom ‘hampers ER workers’

ANN ARBOR At the beginning of the year, there were almost no COVID patients in the medical department of Michigan Medicine. But that changed at the end of March when suddenly nine patients tested positive for COVID-19, six of whom needed hospital accommodation.

The latest spring surge has hit hospital systems in Metro Detroit hard, and with cases and deaths still rising, health officials are sounding the alarm.

“It was a sudden departure from where we were,” Brad Uren, a physician at Michigan Medical Division Brad Uren, said in a news release. “Now we need to get it under control because it can overwhelm the healthcare system.”

Read: 54 takeaways: Beaumont officials on restrictions in Michigan, serious hospital situation, COVID statistics

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Hours said that while people stayed at home last year as the state – and the world – scrambled to learn more about the new virus and how it spread, a lack of collection and dining restrictions contributed to the current numbers.

“People stayed home, people isolated and masked them, we were removed,” Uren said in a release. ‘Well, we are not that zealous, and there is another COVID surge above the usual volume we see in the emergency department due to normal activities. And the combination of the two is increasing. ”

Michigan currently has the country’s highest seven-day case and beds fill up quickly in hospitals.

“We are used to acting in difficult times,” Uren said in a release. “But we are working close to the edge of the envelope of what many of us currently consider normal.”

Another important factor: COVID patients at Michigan Medicine are getting younger.

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Hours said it’s probably due to the prioritization of older adults to receive the first vaccines against COVID-19, and then because people in their 20s and 50s are likely to work outside the home and be more mobile.

According to Michigan Medicine, emergency visits for COVID in the hospital’s pediatric population also saw a 10-20% bump.

Read: Michigan COVID criteria: cases, hospitalizations, positivity rate ‘incredibly worrying’

Although it is rare for a child to be admitted for COVID symptoms, those with an existing condition are.

“We are seeing an increase in pediatric COVID, very much in the young adolescent age group, possibly driven by transmission due to school-based athletic sports,” said head of pediatric emergencies at Michigan Medicine CS Mott Children’s Hospital, Prashant Mahajan, in a release.

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Both doctors suspect that increasing cases in younger populations are due to the more contagious B.1.1.7 variant, which is known to be active in Michigan.

A major problem with COVID cases in children is the development of a rare multisystem inflammatory syndrome called MIS-C.

“We have not seen many of the children yet, but this is something we should expect,” Mahajan said in a release. “The other thing that is really unknown is the number of children who eventually have the long-term effects of the virus, which is now increasingly recognized in adults with COVID.”

Read: Doctor of University of Michigan answers parents’ questions about dangerous COVID condition in children

Despite a steady increase in vaccinations, this new boom is starting to show the strain on hospital workers, Uren said.

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“I see it daily in my co – workers’ faces,” he said in a release. “We work as a team and I’m so proud of them that they stick to it for so long, but it weighs on people.”

Doctors in the Department of Medicine in Michigan ask people to get the vaccine, limit who they interact with, and follow social distance and masking.

“I’m worried that the hesitation of vaccines will slow us down and cause problems, even after a time when vaccines can make us normal again,” Uren said. “We are ready to deal with the virus. It’s not done with us yet. ”