One of the first high profile deaths attributed to coronavirus, the Chinese doctor who shed new light on the extent of the problem… The first case in mid-Michigan is a doctor as well whose patients are now being monitored.
“I’ve never seen stuff quite like that.”
As a father of three and a local business owner, Dominic Moes isn’t taking any chances.
“We don’t have our kids out as much, we’re trying to keep them around the home,” relates Moes. “With the business, making sure we’re sanitizing and keeping things clean for people.”
“We want to make sure people quarantine themselves and are isolated as much as possible,” says Saginaw County Public Health Officer Christina Harrington.
It follows the first case of coronavirus reported in mid-Michigan, diagnosed in a doctor working for Covenant Healthcare in Saginaw, who – ABC 12 learned during a Friday night press conference – had never shown COVID-19’s hallmark symptoms.
“From what we understand right now, someone who’s really sick, coughing a lot, sweaty, short of breath, they look bad, they’re giving off lots of virus,” explains Dr. Matthew Deibel of Covenant Healthcare. “They’re very, very contagious. On the flip side, someone who’s just a little achy and doesn’t have much else, they’re going to be a lot less contagious.”
According to the Bay County Health Department, the doctor was likely exposed during an out of state ski trip. He returned home and continued seeing patients, before suspecting something, quarantining himself and awaiting an ultimately positive test result. Health officials say his patients have already been identified, triaged – and assigned risk categories-low medium or high.
“We’re in the process of actually calling those people, getting in contact with them and starting to monitor them,” says Dr. Delicia Pruitt of the Saginaw County Health Department. “They call us and email us their temperatures, how they’re doing each day.”
“They're fodder,” argues Dominic. “They're right out there in the front lines. It's going to happen… I definitely think having test kits on hand for doctors and things like that is hugely important... I think they really need that support to make sure that they don't.”
As that mandatory 14 day quarantine gets underway for patients who may have been exposed, Dominic stresses remaining calm and simply doing your part.
“We all have the part of helping out and trying to keep things clean and stay calm at the same time.”
Those either medium or high risk will or have already been quarantined. We’re told the situation is being closely monitored by local health departments and Covenant and that plans are in place for any future positive cases in the Great Lakes Bay Region.