Not all hospitalized with COVID are here because of it

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) – With infections reaching record levels, omicron continues to spread unlike any previous variant of COVID-19.

“The system is at its breaking point,” said Dr. Matthew Sims, director of infectious disease research at Beaumont Health. “A little more and it will tip over.”

Sims says this push is incredibly difficult. The massive spike in cases sent more than 430 sick workers throughout the Beaumont Health home in addition to the increase in the number of cases.

“It all started out here in Michigan in the Tri-County area,” Sims said. “Now it’s everywhere.”

On Monday, the state of Michigan reached a record for hospitalized adults with COVID-19 despite the fact that omicron appears to be less severe.

“This translates to a smaller percentage of patients, but we have a larger number of patients who contract omicron,” said Elizabeth Hertel, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. “So that could potentially be more than what we’ve seen with delta.”

Hertel says that according to the state’s models, the peak has still not been reached and cases will continue to rise over the next two to three weeks.

“I think people need to be prepared to see our case rates increase dramatically over the next 10 days,” Hertel said.

In terms of severity, about 18% of all hospitalized adults with confirmed COVID-19 in Michigan are in intensive care.

Sims cautions since every patient in the hospital is tested for COVID-19, even those with mild symptoms hospitalized for other reasons may end up counting as COVID-19 hospital patients. With the rate at which omicron spreads and the often mild symptoms that accompany it, this situation occurs more often.

“Are you saying this is something that can boost the numbers or is it a rare situation,” 7 Action News reporter Brett Kast asked.

“No, that definitely increases the numbers,” Sims replied. “A certain percentage of our COVID patients are not sick with COVID, they are sick with other things. But we also have to deal with their COVID.”

On Fox News Sunday, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Rochelle Walensky, also said the same.

“In some hospitals we spoke with, up to 40% of patients who arrive with COVID do not come because they are sick with COVID-19 but because they arrive with something else,” Walensky mentioned.

However, Sims says that doesn’t change the fact that many people are still very sick and dying from COVID-19. He encourages the vaccine and booster shots, saying these very sick patients almost always go unvaccinated.

“It’s going to break through, especially if you’re not boosted,” Sims said of the omicron variant. “You will be infected, you may even have a few symptoms, but you will not get so sick.”