Nearly 700 Henry Ford Health Employees Test Positive For COVID-19 Over Past Week As Community Cases Spike

As COVID-19 cases continue to surge in the state.

Official's with Henry Ford Health giving an update Tuesday on their hospitalizations.

"Unfortunately, we are starting to see the effects of the holiday curve and the fast spreading Omicron variant," said Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Henry Ford Health Dr. Adnan Munkarah, M.D.

As we enter the first week of a new year, one thing that's remained consistent in the past couple of weeks, is the high number of COVID-19 cases in Michigan.

"As of this morning we've had 480 patients hospitalized with COVID across our hospitals that a 25% increase compared to the last week," said Dr. Munkarah.

Doctors at Henry Ford Health say they always see an increase in cases following holidays and they expect January to be a ruff month.

"I looked at the state cases by date of onset yesterday and as of yesterday I think we had around 15,000 confirmed cases in a single day," said System Medical Director of Infection Control and Prevention at Henry Ford Health, Dr. Dennis Cunningham MD.

Doctors say at Henry Ford 65% of those hospitalized with COVID are unvaccinated. They have also had to close nearly 100 beds in the hospitals due to 686 employees testing positive for COVID over the past week. Those staff members will need to quarantine for 7 days.

"Those healthcare workers are not available to be able to be a part of our teams taking care of patients and accordingly further jeopardizing our ability to render the safest care," Dr. Munkarah said.

Doctors say this is also putting a strain on their emergency rooms which are full a people with COVID symptoms.

They say do not come to the ER for COVID testing or non-severe illnesses.

Doctors say they don't mean to sound like a broken record but the best way out of this pandemic is through vaccines, boosters for those eligible and masks.

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