(WWJ) Staff at Mercy Health Muskegon have been forced to use a heated tent for extra emergency room space due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, hospital officials said.
The medical tent was set up a couple of weeks ago, but as hospital capacity soared to 95% on Thursday, it was forced into service.
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The hospital’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Justin Grill, told WOOD-TV that he never believed they would be using it, but confirmed that the heated tent will help alleviate traffic in the emergency room and will provide all the same services.
Grill said medical personnel will run the tent during the daylight hours and will move services inside after 11 p.m. everyday.
There was no timeline for how long Mercy Heath will be using the tent.
This comes after health officials released the highest daily average of COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic — Michigan saw 13,600 cases per day.
The state's Chief Medical Executive, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, strongly encouraged residents to remain cautious and take precautions as necessary as strain on hospitals across the state could cause delays in routine, urgent, and emergency medical care.
"The best thing we can do now is to use the tools we have — vaccines and boosters, high quality well-fitting masks, and on-going testing. Those are the leys to flattening this curve and suppressing a worsening of the situation that we’re in right now.”
To schedule a vaccination — primary or booster — please visit vaccines.gov.
For more information about the COVID 19 vaccine, please visit Michigan.gov/COVIDVaccine.
You can follow the latest on COVID 19 within the state at Michigan.gov/coronavirus
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