Munson Healthcare is preparing for more COVID-19 cases despite current case positivity in the region holding steady. This and more information was included in their, now, weekly COVID-19 press conference.
In the State of Michigan, the COVID-19 positivity rate is 18 percent today, from over the last two weeks.
“It’s really important to note the seven day average there that you can see at the very bottom is quite high at 26 percent,” says Dr. Christine Nefcy, Munson Chief Medical Officer. “We often look at that one week cumulative average there at 26.3, just sort of indicates the direction we’re going, so for the state it looks like the cases are rising and our likely to go up fairly quickly.”
Inpatient cases are coming down from the most recent surge.
“Even at our low number we are really still sitting around the peak of what we saw in the previous two surges,” says Dr. Nefcy.
Nefcy also noted the length of the current surge.
“We’ve been talking a lot about how our healthcare workers are, the strain on the healthcare system, and if you look and see how long we have been managing this most recent surge it gives you a little bit of an indication,” says Nefcy.
Healthcare workers are preparing for another surge based on the increase in omicron cases across the nation. Omicron is also proving to be much more contagious than the delta variant or original strains.
There’s also concern regarding influenza in the region.
“We are not clear what the impact of having both influenza and COVID or having both of them circulating widely in our community will have on our healthcare system,” says Dr. Nefcy. “But most people would predict that it would not be a good situation.”
The Centers for Disease Control has announced changes to the COVID-19 guidelines, specifically when it comes to isolation and quarantining.
The CDC has shortened the recommended time for isolation from 10 days to five days, for people that have COVID. That is followed by five days of wearing masks when they’re around others, if there are no symptoms or symptoms have resolved after the initial five days.
“This change is based upon epidemiological science that demonstrates the majority of the SARS-COV-2 transmission or COVID-19 occurs early on in the course of the illness so generally in the one or two days prior to the onset of symptoms is when you’re infectious and then the two to three days after you have a positive test or symptoms, so that five day period,” says Wendy Hirschenberger, MPH, CPHA Health Officer/Director. Grand Traverse County Health Department.
If you have been boosted or vaccinated stay home for five days. Afterwards, continue to wear a mask around others for another five days and test on day five.
In Grand Traverse County, transmission rates remain high. Weekly case rates have been decreasing though for the past few weeks.
“We’ve had 264 newly identified cases in the the last week, and 4 deaths, so those numbers compared to what I reported out the previous two press conferences are lower we’re averaging 38 cases per day again that’s slightly lower and our current Traverse City regional percent positivity is 14 and grand traverse county is at 14.1,” says Hirschenberger.
The Grand Traverse County Health Department reiterating that preparations are being made for an increase in cases due to holiday gatherings or once the spread of omicron is seen.
“We are not aware of any omicron, [it] has not been identified in our county yet but it can take 10 to 14 days for that to be sequenced, so it very well could be here and we just won’t know it until we start to see the increase in numbers,” says Hirschenberger.
Vaccination rates in Grand Traverse County remain high. Seventy-three percent of people have initiated a vaccine series while 67 percent have completed it. In the county, 27,428 people have received their booster. Elderly people remain the highest population of vaccinated people with children five to eleven being the lowest.
While people continue to travel and celebrate the holidays with families, there is a shortage of at-home COVID tests.
“We have had some supply chain issues ongoing throughout this pandemic on many different things and I think most people are aware that our initial testing response was fairly poor and we continue to struggle with the availability of tests on a consistent basis,” says Dr. Nefcy. “The state is working with the CDC and the federal government, FEMA and a bunch of others to make testing more widely available.”
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