Despite slight decrease in hospitalizations, Beaumont doctor concerned as COVID-19 surges in Michigan

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A surge in COVID-19 cases, along with the approaching holidays, has doctors concerned.

"Things are certainly going in the wrong direction from a nationwide perspective," said Nick Gilpin the medical director of Epidemiology and Infection Prevention at Beaumont. "Statewide we are a little bit more stable. Our community test positivity is around 16%."

More: Whitmer says Michigan 'in for another 4-6 weeks' of COVID-19 surge

"At Beaumont, our numbers show that we have approximately 580 patients across eight hospitals. That is a slight decrease from the numbers we saw about a week ago when we were over 600 patients." Gilpin said. "Still indicative of really quite high community level of transmission, very widespread transmission."

He said about 23% of those hospitalized Covid patients are vaccinated.

Gilpin said that despite the decrease, the number of people hospitalized still indicates that there are a significant amount of people with COVID-19 in the health care system.

READ: Everything to know about the omicron variant

"I don't anyone is more exhausted, frankly, than us at the hospitals," he said.

He said Beaumont workers have hotlines and ways to get in touch with mental health professionals to help them cope with the pandemic.

As health care workers continue to battle the pandemic, Gilpi said he feels like their messages about the pandemic are not getting through to people.

"It really does feel like we're preaching to the choir right now," he said.

He added that the Covid boosters appear to be effective at mitigating cases of variants, such as omicron.