MT. PLEASANT, MI (MPRN)-- An Upper Peninsula health department is warning people the coronavirus Delta variant is spreading rapidly, and the largely rural district has to rely on its neighbors for intensive care.
The LMAS District Health Department, which covers four counties in the Eastern U.P., is reporting more than 200 COVID-19 cases this month.
It’s a small number compared to some more populated health districts in Michigan, but LMAS spokesperson Kerry Ott says it’s almost a 3,000-percent increase from last month.
“We are finding an incredible increase in cases as we move through the month of August,” she says. “We really are seeing a situation that we haven’t seen since last October, with a rapid -- very rapid -- increase.”
And the four counties Ott’s health department covers don’t have a single intensive care bed. She says as ICUs in nearby counties fill up, some of her patients could be transferred as far away as Wisconsin.
Ott says with school starting again, she’s expecting the virus’s spread to accelerate even more.
