Beaumont Reports First COVID-19 Death in Michigan
Beaumont Health says a man who tested positive for the disease died at a Wayne County hospital, but cautioned against rushing for tests as supplies ramp up.
A Metro Detroit hospital has reported the first COVID-19 related death in Michigan. There are 80 cases in the state now.
Beaumont Health says a man who tested positive for the disease died at a Wayne County hospital. Beaumont says the man was in his 50’s and had other underlying medical conditions.
“Our medical team went to extraordinary efforts to care for this patient and we are deeply saddened by his passing and empathize with his family.” – Susan Grant, Beaumont Health
“Our medical team went to extraordinary efforts to care for this patient and we are deeply saddened by his passing and empathize with his family,” said Susan Grant, Chief Nursing Officer of Beaumont Health, in a statement.
Doctor Nick Gilpin is the medical director of Beaumont’s infection prevention and epidemiology. He says not everyone who is displaying symptoms for the coronavirus needs to get tested.
“Young relatively healthy people without chronic medical conditions, we don’t have the capacity to test all of you,” he says.
Gilpin says most people with the respiratory disease will recover without incident, but expects cases to “escalate tremendously” as testing ramps up and the novel coronavirus spreads. He says people need to call their physician before showing up to get tested in order to preserve equipment, beds, and the well-being of hospital staff.
Area hospitals are sending thousands of tests to local and national labs to monitor the spread of the respiratory illness.
