Ingham County health officer: COVID-19 is here to stay – WOODTV.com

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) COVID is here to stay.

Thats the unsettling word from the chief health official in Ingham County.

While the rest of the nation is seeing a definite decline in COVID cases and hospitalizations, Michigan is an outlier with the average daily cases up. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is recording over 3,000 new cases every day and 83% of hospital beds are filled with COVID-19 patients, over 90% of whom have not been vaccinated. Fortunately, the death rate has flatlined at 2% for over half a year.

When the governor announced the first two COVID-19 cases in the state in March 2020, there was the expectation that eventually the virus would run out of gas and disappear. Now, 79% of citizens believe it is here to stay.

The chief medical officer in Ingham County says they are right.

COVID is going to become what we call endemic, Health Officer Linda Vail said. Were going to learn to live with COVID, but at what level are we going to live with?

The severity of COVID long-term will depend on shots in arms, and with 20% of the state refusing to get the shots, that is not good news.

If we get people vaccinated with enough shots, it will be a kind of seasonal thing and come and go and it will be around like like other viruses like H1N1; It wont be devastating, said Vail.

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Ingham County health officer: COVID-19 is here to stay - WOODTV.com