Alarming trends in COVID, stadium capacity, confidentiality agreement

LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spoke on Friday morning about an alarming increase in the numbers of COVID-19, the increase in stadium capacity and the elimination of the former health director’s confidentiality agreement.

Here are our briefing lessons.

THE Michigan Department of Health and Human Services updated its COVID-19 order to allow up to 20% of the capacity in outdoor stadiums and arenas with infection control plans. They must also have fixed seats.

Stadiums must create a plan, send the plan to health officials at least a week before the events, publish that plan publicly and administer a testing program for all players.

The state has announced more tests for young athletes aged 13 to 19 to ensure that they can participate in sports safely.

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More information about the program is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus website.

This is in response to an increasing number of COVID-19 outbreaks associated with youth sports, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, from MDHHS, said.

The new rules take effect on Monday (March 22) and run until April 19.

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Michigan administered 3,310,162 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, according to Whitmer.

“More than 3.2 million doses of safe and effective COVID vaccines have been administered in Michigan, and we are well on our way to vaccinating 70% of Michiganders aged 16 and over,” he said. Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, MDHHS chief medical officer and deputy chief health officer. “Although we are still fighting this pandemic and seeing worrying trends in new cases and hospitalizations, we are taking these incremental steps that are in line with CDC guidelines. We are again at a crucial moment in our fight against COVID-19. “

Whitmer said that more than 25% of Michiganders aged 16 and over have already been vaccinated.

Over the next eight weeks, Ford Field will host about 6,000 residents a day to administer vaccines.

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The governor said that many of the recent cases of COVID-19 in the state have been linked to athletics in high schools.

“High school student-athletes will now be required to take the test before all sports practices and competitions,” said Whitmer.

Khaldun said the number of outbreaks in the state increased 9% from the previous week, to 645.

“Last week, for the first time since we started tracking outbreaks, those in K-12 environments have exceeded the number in long-term care facilities,” said Khaldun.

She said that many of the outbreaks are associated with sports and people in younger age groups. Local health departments have identified 315 outbreaks associated with recreational sports teams and clubs in the previous two months, Khaldun said.

In accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Michigan will now allow residents who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to remove masks in certain cases at meetings.

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“Vaccinated people can remove their masks at residential meetings if all participants have been vaccinated,” said Whitmer.

To remove the masks according to the new rules, the meeting must be residential and everyone present must have received both doses of their COVID-19 vaccines or the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine.

“That means two weeks after receiving the final dose of the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Khaldun.

Michigan confirmed at least 756 cases of the B117 COVID-19 variant, Whitmer announced. This variant, first identified in the UK, is more contagious than the original virus chain.

Whitmer said Michigan has the second highest number of confirmed B117 cases in the country, behind Florida.

“We also have two cases of the South African variant B.1.315”Said Whitmer.

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Michigan tracks these variant cases through genetic sequencing in laboratories.

Michigan’s case rate has now risen for four consecutive weeks, rising to 172.9 cases per million people on Friday (March 19).

The case rate has increased by 77% since mid-February, but well below the peak of 737.8 cases per million people on November 14.

“Cases have been on the rise since the end of February,” said Whitmer. “Fortunately, the deaths remained low and, on Wednesday, we had no new deaths reported for the first time in months, which is excellent news.”

The percentage of COVID tests that tested positive in Michigan has also increased for four consecutive weeks and is now at 6.2%.

Michigan’s positivity percentage increased 177% from the mid-February low, but it is still nowhere near the December 19.4% high.

The percentage of beds dedicated to patients with COVID-19 across the state is 4.9%. Hospitalization peaked at 19.6% on December 4, but Friday’s figure is a 25% increase from the end of February.

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Khaldun said the COVID-19 metrics above are very worrying and show that Michigan is once again heading in the wrong direction.

“What we are seeing now is very worrying data that shows that we are going in the wrong direction with the main metrics that we are tracking for COVID-19,” said Khaldun.

With the rise in case rates and positivity over the past four weeks, Khaldun said Michiganders need to remember basic security protocols, such as wearing masks and avoiding large meetings.

Khaldun said that just because something is allowed under the new MDHHS guidelines, it does not mean that the action is risk-free.

The first question during Whitmer’s question and answer part was about former MDHHS director Robert Gordon.

This week, the state and Gordon eliminated the confidentiality agreement that prevented him from talking about his abrupt dismissal.

Whitmer was asked about the reason for getting rid of this confidentiality agreement, which was widely criticized and even labeled “silence” by Republican lawmakers.

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“The transparency conversation is important and we have nothing to hide,” said Whitmer. “We released the former director of the agreement and dismissed the agreement in the interests of greater transparency.”

The governor said she will continue to focus on the global pandemic going forward.

Due to the outbreaks associated with youth sports and high school athletics, Whitmer was asked if the state considered closing these activities as the number of cases increased.

“Right now, we are not announcing any restrictions,” said Whitmer. “We have no plans to do that right now.”

She said Michigan has the tools necessary to fight the virus: masks, social distance, vaccines and hand washing.

Whitmer said officials knew when they reopened more parts of the state that there would be a greater risk of spreading COVID-19.

“Let’s take a closer look, because these variants are very worrying,” said Whitmer.

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She said that as long as everyone does their part, the re-engaged segments of the economy can remain open.

The final question to Whitmer during the briefing focused on his nursing home policy that placed patients positive for COVID-19 in nursing homes with people who did not have the virus.

“Governor, do you believe that when COVID’s elderly were transferred from hospitals to nursing homes, did it result in the death of residents who did not have the disease?” she was asked.

Whitmer said the nature of COVID-19 is that it targets older people and spreads easily in crowded environments.

She also said that we have learned a lot about the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.

“We, at the beginning, had no idea that a mask would be the most important tool that each of us could easily adorn to protect ourselves and our COVID-19 communities,” said Whitmer. “We learned a lot. Now, our nursing home policy – I know that many people have tried to rewrite it. But, in fact, the policy of the nursing home was this: we follow the CDC guidelines. “

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She said the state never ordered a nursing home to receive patients back into their care.