MT. PLEASANT, MI (MPRN)— COVID-19 cases in much of the country are decreasing, but in the Upper Peninsula the spread still seems to be accelerating.
The LMAS District Health Department covers four counties just north of the Mackinac Bridge. None of them has an intensive care unit.
Kerry Ott is the district spokesperson. She says some people are waiting as much as 30 hours to be transferred to a hospital that can care for critically ill or injured patients.
“This isn’t just COVID patients, but the number of COVID patients is making it harder for other people to get the care they need,” she says.
Ott says people are waiting in hallways while hospital staff look for spots in Detroit, Milwaukee and Chicago.
She says to get the pandemic under control in the U.P., people need to get back to the basic precautions: washing hands regularly, wearing masks indoors in public, and avoiding large gatherings.
She says vaccination rates in her area are at about 50 percent.
