As the holidays get closer and we're trying to decide whether or not to host a Thanksgiving dinner, or even to travel to see family, Fox 17 says Thursday, Governor Whitmer painted a dark picture as the United States is seeing positive COVID-19 cases exceed 100,000 per day, with around 1,000 people dying daily.

According to Fox 17, Whitmer said during her news conference,

“I just want that to sink in for a second. Try to imagine 10, 737 airplanes crashing to the ground every single day. That’s what we’re facing. A 9/11 every three days.”

The Governor was joined on stage for her news conference by both doctors battling the increased cases and the executives running the health care systems in the state, who all agreed that our current wave of positive cases in just the past week has increased exponentially and is starting to overwhelm the state's healthcare systems, as well as around the country.

Our state is currently at a 10.8% positivity rate and that hospitals are running through their supply of PPE (masks and gloves) very quickly, because of being overwhelmed, Fox 17 reports.

The Governor and the doctors that joined her on Thursday are encouraging people to not travel for Thanksgiving and reminding everyone that wearing a mask consistently as well as continued hand washing and social distancing are critical right now.

As Fox 17 reports, Dr. Karen Kent-Vangorder, a family practitioner from Lansing said at the news conference,

“With positivity rates going to 10% or higher in some communities, we just can’t go to the shelf and pull off more ICU nurses and more pharmacists and more physicians that are able to run ventilators and take care of wildly sick patients. Those are just patients that will go without.”

Health officials around the country, not just in Michigan, are encouraging people to stay home more, once again, in hopes of slowing this second wave of coronavirus cases, as we anxiously await a vaccine.

 

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