Beaumont Health said Wednesday it has the highest number of COVID-19 inpatients in Michigan — with more than 500 on Tuesday — and is expanding COVID-19 units at all its hospital sites.
Also, the health system released guidelines about fully vaccinated people visiting their loved ones who are hospitalized for issues other than the coronavirus.
Beaumont Health said in a release that the number COVID-19 positive or suspected positive inpatients rose from 128 on Feb. 28 to more than 500 on Tuesday.
It states that is more than double the number of COVID-19 positive patients being treated at any other hospital system in Michigan, according to the state health department.
As a result, the COVID-19 units have expanded. Also, the “system labor pool” has been reconvened, connecting the health system’s human resources and clinical staff from each hospital in daily meetings to provide awareness of the situation and to monitor and provide additional staffing requests.
“We continue to monitor the numbers very, very closely and are instituting changes from the Incident Command Centers to best care for our patients,” said Dr. Nick Gilpin, Beaumont Health’s medical director of infection prevention and epidemiology. “Expanding COVID-19 units at the sites is a result of that, and we are working hard to provide the best care in the region.”
The health system is open to people who need care, including emergency visits, testing and surgery as “infections are growing in the community and not in hospitals,” according to the release.
It reinstituted visitor restrictions last week, as have three other health systems in Michigan because of the surge in COVID-19 cases: Ascension Michigan, Henry Ford Health System and Spectrum Health. The hospital systems said they are seeing more younger people than older people, who have had the chance to be vaccinated, being hospitalized.
More:Hospitals get younger COVID-19 patients; new cases, deaths of nursing home residents drop
More:Henry Ford Health System to restrict visitors at 3 hospitals as COVID-19 cases rise
For visitors within Beaumont Health, masks are required, even for those fully vaccinated. However, fully vaccinated visitors — one person per day — may be at the bedside of patients who do not have COVID-19 or are not suspected of having the virus. The policy started at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Visitors must have finished their vaccination schedule and be 14 days past their final dose. They also must show proof of vaccination through either their completed, official vaccination record card and photo identification or a photo of their completed, official vaccination record card.
“We know that we’re one of the first health care systems allowing vaccinated visitors,” said John Fox, president and CEO of Beaumont Health. “But we recognize that patients recuperate better when they have someone dear to them nearby. So, we are working hard to balance safety with compassionate family support as we lead the way through the pandemic.”
More:Michigan leads US with highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita, more vaccines coming
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are surging in Michigan — the state is worst in the nation for cases per capita over the last seven days, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More:Detroit opens COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to residents age 16 and older
Local, state and federal health officials are closely monitoring COVID-19 case trends while they urge people to continue to mask up, wash hands, stay socially distanced and — most importantly — get vaccinated when it’s their turn.
Some locations, such as the city of Detroit and Spectrum Health, announced they will vaccinate anyone age 16 and older, ahead of the April 5 date when all Michiganders age 16 and older are eligible to receive a vaccine.
Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel announced Wednesday that any county resident age 16 and older is now eligible for a shot there, too.
The county has added four new vaccination sites for residents in the last four days, with the newest one coming online Wednesday: a drive-thru site in the former Sears auto care center at Lakeside Mall.
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel attended a briefing ahead of the drive-thru clinic opening in the state’s fourth largest city.
“At this point in the pandemic, we are in a race against time,” she said. “A race to safely vaccinate as many residents as possible and at the same time drive down our current COVID-19 trends.”
When asked whether more restrictions would be put in place, Hertel noted that the increase in cases has been higher than the state anticipated when it loosened restrictions on gatherings at the beginning of March. But she said hoped the spike would be small if people continue to follow safety precautions.
“We know that hospitalizations are increasing, but the number of individuals who are receiving critical care is lower than it had been previously and people seem to be moving through the hospitals more quickly.
“So until we get to a point where we believe we are at a place that our hospitals cannot handle the capacity that is coming in, we will continue to urge the mitigation measures in place so that we can continue to re-engage.”
More:Doctors urge women to delay mammogram until 4-6 weeks after COVID-19 vaccine
Earlier this week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said providers can fill every vaccine appointment with someone age 16 and older so as not to waste doses.
In an interview Wednesday morning on CNN, Whitmer again called on residents to get vaccinated while defending the state’s decision to begin easing COVID-19 restrictions in recent weeks.
Whitmer said the state’s ability to keep case rates and other metrics lower earlier this year makes the current surge appear disproportionately bad. But when asked whether she would consider instituting new restrictions, Whitmer did not directly answer the question.
“We’re continuing to have robust conversations…yesterday morning I had a restaurant owner asking if we could lift the curfew because of the Michigan game last night. Unfortunately, Michigan didn’t win, but the point still is that there’s a lot of push and pull. What we need to do is double down on our masking and get more people vaccinated.”
Whitmer asked the White House Tuesday whether it would consider sending more vaccines to states with rapidly increasing COVID-19 case rates during a meeting hosted by the White House and the National Governors Association.
Later Tuesday, she said that next week Michigan will receive more vaccines to help mitigate the surge in cases. She said the state’s direct allocation will increase by 66,020 doses, for a total of 620,040 vaccines, a weekly record high for Michigan. This includes 147,800 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
On Wednesday, she raised the state’s vaccination goal from 50,000 to 100,000 shots in arms per day. But officials did not detail specifically how that goal would be achieved.
More:Ford Field begins COVID-19 vaccinations with plans to inoculate 5,000 a day
However, they said, for 38 days the state has met or exceeded its original goal of 50,000 shots per day.
More than 2.6 million Michiganders (33% of the population) have received at least one dose of vaccine, with more than 4.2 million doses being administered so far,state data shows.
Michigan has recorded 665,948 COVID-19 cases and 16,082 deaths as of Tuesday, according to the data.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.
Support local journalism. Subscribe to the Free Press.