Over 700 Employees At Detroit Hospital Test Positive For Coronavirus

More than 700 employees at a Detroit Hospital system have tested positive for the coronavirus, the hospital’s chief clinical officer said Monday evening.

As many as 2,500 employees of Henry Ford Hospital underwent tests so far and 734 reports came back positive, representing over 2% of the total 31,600 employees at the hospital. Dr. Adnan Munkarah, the chief clinical officer at the hospital, said in a statement that further testing is likely to diagnose more positive cases among the employees.

“If we are to test the whole population, you are going to see large numbers of people who are testing positive,” Munkarah said in a press conference, according to nonprofit news website BridgeMI.com. “Testing positive is just a measure of how contagious this virus is.”

The Henry Ford officials refused to give the count of employees who died of COVID-19, citing employee privacy. The publication previously reported that Lisa Ewald, a nurse at the hospital facility, died of the disease the same week.

The hospital refused to disclose additional details about the employees who tested positive, such as their designation, how many of them were still working, and how many were in quarantine.

“Our team members are our greatest asset and their health and safety is a top priority as we continue to respond to this pandemic,” Munkarah said. “We know we are not immune to potential exposure and we remain grateful for the courage and dedication of our entire team.”

Henry Ford encountered an overwhelming number of COVID-19 admissions, like several other hospital facilities in the area, as metro Detroit became the epicenter of the virus, representing 80% of Michigan’s cases. As many as 5,023 Detroit residents have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday, with 193 deaths. 17,221 Michigan residents in total have been infected with the coronavirus as of Monday and 727 have died, according to the data released by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.