Michigan Health Watch

Beaumont Health ER doctors handling heart attacks, other illnesses and pediatric cases will take pay cuts or temporary leaves of absence as the coronavirus continues to pound at Beaumont’s bottom line. 

Between Friday and Sunday, there were 65 calls to the Michigan Poison Center about exposure to household cleaning products, including 16 calls about bleach and nine calls about disinfectants, according to data from the center. That was up about 86 percent from the prior weekend and 55 percent over the same span last year.

COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll on nurses, doctors and other health care workers. Health systems aren’t always eager to publicly acknowledge those who died.  

Parents are avoiding health care settings for fear of coronavirus. But doing so, doctors say, puts a child’s health at risk with missed vaccinations, untended anxiety problems or life-threatening diseases that can develop undetected.

For much of April, coronavirus cases dropped consistently in Michigan. They are jumping upward again in the past few days as cases spread outstate. But experts also attribute the rise to more testing.

A spike of virus cases among homeless people helps push Kent County’s daily coronavirus cases to levels equal to those seen in metro Detroit. Officials in the west Michigan county say a peak could be three weeks away.

You can now look up the number of COVID-19 patients at a particular hospital or health system, as well as the total capacity of beds being used, and the number of days of personal protective equipment left on hand.

More than 40 years ago, a dying newborn and a doctor who ended up at the University of Michigan helped set the course for technology that today may be the last chance at survival for some COVID-19 patients.