Berrien County Health Department charts are moving in the right direction on virtually all counts in recent days, and Health Officer Nicki Britten opened her video update today be saying simply: “We have continued good news.” She went on to explain why, on multiple fronts including the news that “We are continuing to see the downward trend in positive COVID-19 cases, down under about 20 new cases per day, and that continues to be really, really encouraging, and is a far cry from where we were in November.”
At the same time she says the county is seeing a decrease in the percent of positivity for the coronavirus, where we’re below 5-percent now. She adds, “As we would expect with fewer cases, we’re seeing a lower percent of positivity.” Nevertheless, testing still remains at a good level, with several hundred tests per day happening in Berrien County, and Britten reminds everyone, “Don’t forget that testing is still available and if you need testing you can still seek that out from a wide variety of locations and if you need to see that you can find it on the Berrien County Health Department’s website.” Britten suggests, “Overall trends are really encouraging and we’re seeing the same thing with the patient census at Spectrum Health Lakeland as well.”
Speaking on behalf of Spectrum Health Lakeland in today’s update, Kendall Troyer, Vice President of Quality, Safety and Physician Practices, standing in for Dr. Loren Hamel, says, “Those trends that you’re seeing with positivity and with case counts in Berrien County then translate to the hospital, so our rolling seven-day average is at 13.3 right now, which is the lowest it has been in a long time.” Troyer adds, “Our current census today is actually at 12, with 12 COVID-positive patients in house and five tests that are still pending.”
Looking at the numbers, Troyer admits, “It’s just a really different place than we were at and I want to thank the community. When I’m out and about now, I see a lot of people wearing their masks, and we here at the hospital appreciate that. The team has been really stretched over the last couple of months and it’s nice to have this little bit of a breather, to get back to providing wellness care which we want to be able to do, so we’re definitely seeing those trends move in the right direction and appreciate the work of the health department.”
On the vaccination front, the Health Department’s leader, Britten says, “Based on who is eligible and how we’ve been progressing through the groups, there have been a total of 32,000 doses of vaccine administered in Berrien County. That does include both first and second doses, so that doesn’t mean 32,000 individuals have been vaccinated, but that is a tremendous effort in about two months’ time.” To show the impact Britten reports, “It really does represent 17-percent of our population 16 years of age or older, because you have to be at least 16 to be able to receive the vaccine. The fact that we’ve got 17-percent of our eligible population by here at the end of February, I think is pretty phenomenal. We are also doing well targeting those over the age of 75 who we know are at the highest risk of severe illness and death, with about half of that population group having received the vaccine. That puts us at sixth in the state in terms of vaccinating these older adults, so we’re continuing to work through this, we are definitely meeting the benchmark of 90-percent of vaccine being administered within 7-days of receiving it, in fact, a lot of times it’s much closer to 100-percent than that 90-percent benchmark.”
Asked about current eligible groups, Britten shared a chart from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, saying, “As most of you are aware, we’ve been working through this Phase 1A for vaccinations, which is health care workers and long term care residents and staff. That has been well under way for almost two months now here in Berrien County and we’ve got some good coverage there. Then, starting in January, we had adults 75-years of age or older that were not part of Phase 1A, plus front line responders, police, fire and medical first responders, and then school and childcare staff which we are continuing to work through the process of vaccinating those groups, and corrections staff. Then MDHHS did bring 65- to 74-year olds from Phase 1C to eligibility at the same time as some of these Phase 1B individuals. Those are the ones who are currently eligible according to the MDHHS Chart timeline.”
Regarding what’s next, Britten says, “Starting Monday, March 1st, MDHHS has announced there there will also be agricultural and food manufacturing and processing workers that are eligible. This is really geared towards food manufacturing settings, where the nature of the work does not allow for any social distancing, and a lot of these types of facilities (we don’t have as many in Berrien County) but a lot of these facilities throughout the state have had significantly large outbreaks in the spring, summer and fall due to the working conditions being unable to mitigate that risk. So that’s’ who is being targeted, but there are other essential workers that are in Phase 1B, Group C, but we are not yet to them, and MDHHS is predicting that maybe in April those groups would become eligible. Those groups include things like critical manufacturing, public transit, grocery workers as well as the postal service. So those groups we are preparing for, and doing the planning, but the state has not yet made those groups eligible and again according to the timeline we think it might be April.”
For further clarification, Britten says, “One thing I would just add, is that the things that go into these recommendations and eligibilities, especially for workers, is not just a matter of ‘do you have exposure to the public,’ but it’s also the vulnerability that comes into play there. Our main goal with vaccination is to #1 protect the health care system from being overwhelmed so that we have adequate health care resources to meet all of the health needs in our community, COVID and non-COVID related, and then we also have to protect the most vulnerable from severe illness and morbidity. That serves to both protect residents as well as releasing the strain on the health system and we want to maintain that certain critical infrastructure as defined by the workers who are eligible according to MDHHS.”
She concludes, “We’re hearing from lots of folks who say we want to be vaccinated,” and promises, “We’re eager to vaccinate you, it’s just not time yet, so continue to bear with us as we move through that.”
Both the Berrien County Health Department and Spectrum Health Lakeland recognize that the entire vaccination process is not a one-size-fits-all scenario, with Britten saying, “We see a lot about the mass clinics, and there are a lot of advantages, and the mass clinics do work for a lot of people, and it’s a good way to get a lot of people through in a short period of time, but we also know that strategy doesn’t work for everybody. Electronic sign-up to be able to get to a mass clinic doesn’t work for everybody, so some additional strategies that the health department has taken the lead on, but it’s definitely been a partnership with Spectrum Health Lakeland, is to do a lot of community based clinics, targeted pop-up clinics. We’re actually partnering with community agencies whether it’s a senior center or a church or housing communities, working to bring the vaccine to where people are, knowing that helps overcome some of the barriers and getting the vaccine to where people are because not everyone can come to where the vaccine is. Our plan is not perfect, and it’s a work in progress, but we’re continuing to work to make a difference.”
Spectrum Health Lakeland’s Troyer asked everyone, “Stay vigilant. Stay hopeful. It really is a time for hope. I’ve had the privilege of going to some of these mass vaccination clinics, and the energy is palpable. The community members that are there, seeking the vaccine, show great excitement. The volunteers that are there giving of their time to vaccinate our community are excited to be there, so hope is the word for me right now, but don’t lose sight of that vigilance to continue to wear your mask, to continue to socially distance. We don’t want to see numbers start to go back up and we want to stay as open as we can be.”
