has been since the start of the pandemic. and quite frankly that s because we are as you said rapidly approaching our all time record high for covid hospitalizations. but at the same time, we re seeing a real surge of patients who likely delayed seeking treatment for care that are now showing up in the hospital, our staff who have been dealing with this pandemic for nearly two years now are as fatigued as they have ever been, and so, again, the situation is incredibly dire. and we need the public support to get out of this very dangerous predicament. as dire as it has been, i know people will hear that and say, how can that be? i know michigan s vaccination rate is 55%, below the national average. but how can it be the worst it s been at this point of the pandemic? when we look at emergency department volume and we look at positivity rate, we know that in the days and weeks ahead those
hospitalization numbers are only going to increase. we have hospitals now that are on diversion, hospitals that are rescheduling elective procedures, all the things that we saw earlier in the pandemic during the first surge, but the difference is now we have employees who have left the healthcare field, for other jobs, they have retired if they re in a position to retire, our workforce is challenged, they re burned out, fatigued, and that s what s created this incredibly difficult situation. beyond that, we have a shortage in terms of individuals who can provide transportation services. and so there are patients in hospital beds that could be transferred to a different setting, either higher acuity or lower acuity and we don t have the staff to facilitate that transfer. and so that s creating a real roadblock in the process as well. all kinds of logistical issues, workforce issues and significant part of the
not yet. not yet. you can see there is the lead prosecutor right there, who made the closing arguments yesterday for the prosecution and you can see people milling about. in a moment, they will bring the jury in and we will bring you this rebuttal the second it happens. in the meantime, the state of michigan is under high alert amid soaring covid case counts and hospitalizations. michigan leads the nation with the most reported covid cases in the last seven days and health officials say it is a matter of weeks before hospitalizations surpass the previous pandemic peak set in april last year. joining me is brian peters, ceo of michigan health and hospital association, which represents all community hospitals in michigan. and it one of the nation s largest state hospital associations. thanks so much for being with us. what is the situation in your hospitals this morning? well, thank you for having me this morning. and you re exactly correct. i would say that the situation confronting o
thanks to you both. so here s what else to watch today. health officials in michigan sounding the alarm as covid hospitalizations aapproach the highest level since the pandemic began. what is behind this surge? and we are awaiting the final rebuttal from the prosecution in the trial of the three men accused of killing ahmaud arbery. we re going to be live inside the courtroom for these crucial arguments.