For the first time in nearly a year, Mercy Health Hospital in Muskegon says it has zero COVID-19 patients in its care. According to a Facebook post by hospital officials, it’s the first time Mercy Health Muskegon hasn’t had a single inpatient suffering from the coronavirus since last March.
With overcrowding and a lack of hospital beds to accommodate the number of people being admitted for COVID-19 once a vital concern to health officials, it has been a long road to get that number back to zero, at least for the time being.
While the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services last week said that new cases of the coronavirus had been declining for the past five weeks, health officials say now is NOT the time to become complacent, even as the vaccine continues to roll out and pandemic fatigue sets in.
Kathy Moore is the Public Officer for Muskegon’s Health Department says however, that the news is still cause for celebration.
“The message is that there is definitely a light at the end of this tunnel, and it is a short tunnel,” Moore said. (But) proceed with caution, we still have to protect a lot of vulnerable people in our county.”
And Mercy Health echoes those words, as the hospital is asking that the community continue to wear masks and to follow health and safety guidelines.