Ingham County Health Department Reports Less Testing
Here in Michigan covid-19 just keeps popping up, currently in the lower peninsula of Michigan, Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties are our hottest spots with well over 1000 cases per hundred thousand persons. The Governor has continued to open sheltered businesses like gyms and movie theatres. But even as things are coming back, we are still seeing spikes in the virus, and the big worry is flu season coming up. That is two viruses we will be fighting at the same time. The state of Michigan and local health departments are still actively testing for Covid-19 with swab tests and anti-body tests all over the state. East Lansing has been fighting hard against covid-19 with several outbreaks at off campus student housing in the past month. They are not as hot right now as Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties, but Ingham county still sees 35 new cases per day, that is 12 per 100,000. In total Ingham county has seen 3536 reported cases of Covid and 49 deaths. Ingham county is attributing the decline of cases in their county to the lack of people getting tested.
WILX reports ““You can be the best health department in the world and it’s still hard to get cases down that fast,” said Officer Linda Vail. East Lansing Mayor Aaron Stephens said people are refusing to get tested in fear of having to quarantine. “Quarantine is something done to keep people safe and it’s to make sure people in the community don’t get exposed to the virus,” said Stephens.
When the students moved back to East Lansing, that is when they saw the surge. They do not think they will see another surge like that one.
WILX also reports “I am worried about my city generally. I am scared for those that might have significant health issues because of this. My message to you is don’t ruin this for the rest of us," said Mayor Stephens. "So many people are doing the right thing, they want to get back to in-person classes. They want our businesses to succeed, they don’t want people to get sick, so do the right thing.”
This battle is far from over for East Lansing, and the rest of the world. We will be fighting this virus for quite a while, just like the flu, it is not going away permanently. If you have not been tested, it is a promising idea to do it. And always follow social distancing, wash your hands, and wear a mask. The life you save could be somebody you know.