It was New Year’s Eve. Across the United States, Americans were planning their resolutions, heading to parties, and tuning in to watch the ball drop in New York City. They embraced the coming new year the way we always tend to – with excitement and optimism, focused on the kinds of opportunities we tend to believe only a fresh start can bring.
A world away, in China’s Hubei province, communist party officials spent December 31st confirming publicly for the first time dozens of cases of pneumonia from an unknown or unexplained cause.
2020 hasn’t gone the way anyone in the world would have hoped, least of all in Michigan. Instead of focusing on resolutions, the rites of Spring, preparing for graduations, Opening Day, residents across Michigan have learned a terrifying new normal.
The first few months of the new year have been filled with illness, panic, government-imposed restrictions, indefinite suspensions of Constitutional freedoms, overrun Michigan hospital systems, and shortages of ventilators, medicines, and personal protective equipment.
Globally, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Experts and epidemiologists predict the number of individuals who’ve actually contracted the virus may be up to 7 times the number who have shown symptoms, gotten tested, and received medical confirmation.
On January 31st, President Donald Trump announced a travel ban, cutting off air travel from China. By March 12th, he’d extended the ban to Europe. The virus was already being transmitted across the United States, particularly in big cities like Detroit. Two days before the President’s move to restrict flights from across the Atlantic, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services had identified the first 2 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Michigan.
That same day, March 10, Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency and, leaning on some of the state’s best medical minds, began taking emergency actions to protect residents from the coming pandemic. On March 16 she temporary closed schools across the state – an order she’d later make permanent, and on March 23rd signed an order effectively shuttering the economy. Residents working “non-essential” jobs were required to “stay home” and “stay safe.”
The governor and policymakers say the increasingly tough measures were designed to “flatten the curve,” and give physicians and health care workers a chance to fight the virus without being overrun by seriously ill patients.
Despite these best efforts, hospitals quickly began running out of personal protective equipment, ventilators, and bed space. The Michigan National Guard was deployed to construct field hospitals, the TCF Center (formerly Cobo Hall) in Detroit was turned into a 900 bed infirmary, and hospital groups cleared the board of elective and less urgent procedures.
The United States leads the world in the number of confirmed cases, and at the outbreak’s worst, our national death rate was doubling faster than anywhere else on the planet. Few states were harder hit than Michigan, with Detroit and the counties surrounding it rivaled only by New York and California for the sheer volume of death and serious illness.
While a global pandemic is bound to produce bad news to dominate the headlines, it’s also been a year of remarkable personal sacrifice and innovation by Michigan physicians, health care providers, and everyday Michiganders mobilized and motivated to support them.
Physicians guided policymakers at every turn. They bravely treated patients even when it became impossible to use or obtain adequate personal protective equipment. Many suffered grave consequences, becoming ill themselves.
Everyday Michiganders did their part, too, distancing to limit the spread of the disease, donating supplies, buying meals for health care teams, and even sewing masks to help protect them on the job.
As of publication, Michigan appears to have “flattened the curve” of new infections, and global, national and state modelling indicate we may have already reached the virus’s seasonal peak. There’s still, though, much physicians and researchers are working to learn, including the catalysts and conditions that may launch a second wave of infections, and the pandemic’s risk of worsening later this year with the start of the traditional cold and flu season.
We’re not out of the woods yet.
The Michigan State Medical Society is on the ground and working night and day to support Michigan’s heroic physicians. We’ve created and compiled key resources to help physicians address their patients health, their personal safety, and to keep the lights on and the practice running during difficult times. We’ve also partnered with legal and industry leaders to address key concerns and provide additional tools and information to assist you when you need it most.
We’re learning more every day about how Michigan got here – and thanks to Michigan physicians – how we’ll move forward safely.
TIMELINE: COVID-19 in MICHIGAN
December 31, 2019 – Chinese authorities in the Wuhan Province confirm dozens of local cases of an unknown or unidentified pneumonia.
January 31, 2020 – President Donald Trump bans travel from China to the United States in an effort to limit the spread of the now-identified COVID-19 virus.
March 10, 2020 – Michigan Department of Health and Human Services confirms the first 2 cases of COVID-19 infection in Michigan.
March 13, 2020 – Governor Whitmer temporarily closes all Michigan schools and bans gatherings of 250 or more.
March 14, 2020 – Michigan COVID-19 cases surpass 30.
March 16, 2020 – Michigan COVID-19 cases surpass 50. Governor Whitmer closes all bars, restaurants, gyms and public places.
March 17, 2020 – Michigan confirms its first COVI-19 related death. Confirmed infections surpass 100.
March 22, 2020 – Michigan COVID-19 cases surpass 1,000.
March 23, 2020 – Governor Whitmer issues a “stay home stay safe” order shuttering all “non-essential” businesses in Michigan.
March 28, 2020 – Michigan’s death toll surpasses 100, with 4,650 confirmed cases. President Donald Trump approves a Disaster Declaration making federal funds available for Michigan communities.
April 2, 2020 – Governor Whitmer closes K-12 schools for the remainder of the school year.
April 9, 2020 – Governor Whitmer extends the “stay home stay safe” order shuttering all “non-essential” businesses in Michigan; expands to include capacity guidelines and closure of additional types of business.