Kate Wells, Michigan Radio

For many hospital systems, this new surge arrives as thousands of hospital workers themselves are testing positive for the virus, putting a further strain on staffing.

Spectrum Health in west Michigan hit a system-level record high for patients, forcing them to turn away more transfer patients from smaller or more rural hospitals. ‘It’s heartbreaking,’ the system’s president said. 

Bitter fights over whether hospitals are doing enough to retain and recruit health care workers have intensified during the pandemic, as shortages reach a crisis point.

Michigan emergency department visits are up 43 percent, thanks in part to an avalanche of sick people who delayed medical care amid COVID. Some patients wait in hallways for days. Others lose their beds when even sicker patients arrive.

The Detroit-based hospital system made the numbers public after a deadline passed for staff to get vaccinated. A dozen Michigan health systems were surveyed on staff vaccine rates, offering varying levels of transparency. 

In just under a month, the number of COVID-19 patients in Michigan receiving monoclonal antibody treatments soared by more than 300 percent, from about 500 patients the week for March 24, to about 1,700 the week of April 21.

As of Friday, April 23, 54 children were hospitalized in Michigan with suspected or confirmed  COVID-19. 

With shortages of the COVID-19 vaccine expected for the foreseeable future, people’s lives depend on having effective treatments for the virus. 

For so many teachers right now, trying to get the COVID-19 vaccine can feel like a distilled version of everything that’s been so stressful and challenging about the last 10 months: Nothing’s working the way it’s supposed to. No one seems to be able to figure out what’s going on. And you’re basically on your own.

Michigan health care workers have spent the last nine months in the trenches battling COVID. But not all will opt-in.