Holy Wah! Yoopers Have Just Three Coronavirus Patients In Their Hospitals

The Upper Peninsula has just three COVID-19 patients in its hospitals with a bed occupancy rate of 35% as of May 11.

Yet, the U.P. is still under a lockdown order. There are about 311,000 people living in the U.P.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s plan to reopen the state says specific regions could be reopened earlier than more hard hit areas.

However, in a May 3 interview on NBC’s Meet The Press, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Chief Medical Executive for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said the reason rural areas are still shutdown was some rural hospitals were “at capacity.”

“In some of our rural areas, the number of hospital beds are not what it should be. Many of our hospitals in our rural areas are at capacity,” Khaldun said on Meet The Press.

Region 8 (the U.P.) reported having 614 inpatient beds with 214 of those beds occupied, as of May 11. That’s a bed occupancy rate of 35%.

Region 8 hospitals report having three COVID-19 patients as of May 11. That region includes Chippewa, Mackinac, Luce, Schoolcraft, Delta, Alger, Marquette, Dickinson, Menominee, Baraga, Iron, Gogebic, Ontonagon, Houghton and Keweenaw counties.