Michigan Gov. Whitmer defends COVID nursing home policy amid threats of legal action

LANSING, Mich. – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has faced criticism over a nursing home policy her administration launched in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Initially, patients who tested positive for COVID were placed in the same facility with patients who did not have COVID. Whitmer ended this practice after the first six months of the pandemic.

There is a growing control over politics with the prospect of lawsuits and other legal actions. Whitmer said she is still proud of her team’s overall response to the coronavirus.

TO READ: Michigan AG analyzes applications to investigate state policy on nursing homes

Announcements

Whitmer’s policy differs from that of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in that Whitmer did not force COVID-positive patients to reside with COVID-negative patients. Instead, Whitmer encouraged the process by paying for houses to carry patients who had contracted COVID-19.

The most current count puts the death toll from long-term care at 5,537 in Michigan, which is more than 35 percent of all deaths from COVID in the state.

When Cuomo was fired for allegedly failing to report the number of seniors sent from nursing homes who died in hospitals, Local 4 filed a request for freedom of information to examine Michigan numbers. There are none.

TO READ: Daughter shares the struggle she faced while her elderly mother was in the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic

Announcements

The request was returned with a denial of data, saying “no records of the location of the death are collected.”

“I am proud of the work we did. We can analyze different angles of statistics and compare ourselves with other states, but … I think it can sometimes be a task, because the way we are gathering data varies from state to state, ”said Whitmer. . “When there’s never a national strategy, (it’s) hard to really compare apples to apples.”

Macomb County Attorney Peter Lucido is expected to announce an effort to prosecute Whitmer for his nursing home policy.

The Department of Health and Human Services sent an update stating that patients from nursing homes who were taken to the hospital and then died will be counted as deaths from nursing homes, if not they would have been discharged from the care facility.

TO READ: Number of coronavirus deaths at neighboring Metro Detroit care facilities may be worst in US

Announcements