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As coronavirus and COVID-19 spreads deeper into the country, the United States now leads the world in cases with over 116,000. And Detroit is singled out as an "off the charts" hot spot by infectious-disease experts.
(Illustration: U.S. Centers for Disease Control)
The Associated Press includes Detroit in its roundup of COVID news around the country:
“At this time, the trajectory of Detroit is unfortunately even more steep than that of New York,” said Dr. Teena Chopra, the medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at the Detroit Medical Center.
Chopra said many patients have ailments like asthma, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. She also acknowledged that in Detroit, one of the nation’s largest African American cities, there is a distrust among some in the community of the medical system and government due to systemic racism.
“In Detroit, we are seeing a lot of patients that are presenting to us with severe disease, rather than minor disease,” said Chopra, who worried about a “tsunami” of patients.
The Free Press also cites Chopra in a piece that notes the official case count in Michigan is doubling every three days. "Southeast Michigan is burning right now," Chopra said, taking a look at the state's grim data:
Wayne County, with Detroit as the county seat, is in the top counties nationally for COVID-19 cases. The infection rate in Detroit is 205 per 100,000 residents, compared to 132 per 100,000 in Wayne County and 47 per 100,000 in the state.
