Why Michigan is not shutting down despite COVID-19 surge hollandsentinel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hollandsentinel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
State health officials say 246 fully vaccinated Michiganders contracted coronavirus from January to March, and three have died. These are individuals who have had a positive test 14 or more days after the last dose in the vaccine series, said Lynn Sutfin, a spokesperson for the state health department.
Some of the 246 people may ultimately be excluded from the state s tally of vaccine breakthrough cases because they may have had earlier coronavirus infections and still tested positive two weeks post-immunization. These cases are undergoing further review to determine if they meet other (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) criteria for determination of potential breakthrough, including the absence of a positive antigen or PCR test less than 45 days prior to the post-vaccination positive test, Sutfin said.
What we know about the impact of Whitmer’s nursing home policies
Detroit Free Press
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is facing a new wave of criticism over her handling of nursing home residents with COVID-19, after a massive undercounting of deaths from the disease was uncovered in New York.
Under her administration’s policies, hospitals released many elderly, recovering COVID-19 patients back to their long-term care facilities or to nursing homes designated to accommodate them and keep them isolated. In a March 7 interview on CNN, Whitmer said her nursing home policies actually saved a lot of lives.
But critics say Whitmer’s policies recklessly exposed other vulnerable nursing home residents to COVID-19 infection. Republican state lawmakers are now calling for state and federal investigations into whether the policies exacerbated the death toll in nursing homes. Their demands have only grown louder after the discovery of a nondisclosure pact in a separation agreement
Detroit Free Press
Every Michigander 16 and older will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in April, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the state health department said Friday.
Starting March 22, anyone 16 and up with a qualifying medical condition will also be eligible.
The news is the latest effort to rapidly expand vaccine eligibility, with the ultimate goal of inoculating enough people in the state to find some normalcy at some point this year.
“The safe COVID-19 vaccine is the most effective way to protect you, your family and others from the virus,” Whitmer said in a news release. I urge all eligible Michiganders to get one of the three COVID-19 vaccines. It is essential to getting our country back to normal, so that we can all hug our families, get back to work, go to restaurants, send our kids to school, play sports and get together again. And as always: mask up, practice safe social distancing and avoid large indoor gatherings where COVID-19 can easily spread from
Detroit Free Press
As Michigan prepares to expand COVID-19 vaccine eligibility Monday to those 50 and older with underlying health conditions, it cannot rely on doses of the latest vaccine to hit the market for some time.
The state won t receive any doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for the next two weeks, acting Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel told lawmakers Thursday afternoon. We were notified yesterday that we would not receive any more J&J vaccine for the next two weeks, which was disappointing. But we should start seeing that allocation again in three weeks, Hertel said during the hearing.