Health Officials Seeing No Improvement In Berrien County COVID Numbers

covid-19

Berrien County continues to see increases in the number of new coronavirus cases each day, along with increasing hospitalizations. Berrien County Health Department spokesperson Gillian Conrad tells WSJM News the situation isn’t encouraging.

“We are headed in a direction that does not seem to be slowing down,” Conrad said. “We are seeing qan increase in our cases without any signs of a slowdown here in the near future.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 32 people hospitalized with COVID in Berrien County, 4 of them in the ICU.

“With Spectrum Health Lakeland, things are manageable, yet starting to feel that strain.”

Conrad says hospitals in other areas of the state and country are under even more strain. She notes the most common cause of COVID spread at this point is gatherings between loved ones and friends. Conrad recommends masking up and distancing even in those situations.

“We have all become accustomed to wearing masks and social distancing when we’re out in public, say at the grocery store or at the bank, but we don’t take those same precautions when we’r with our extended family or friends.”

Berrien County stood at 2,889 cases since the start of the pandemic as of Tuesday afternoon. Michigan has seen a total of nearly 188,000 COVID cases since March, along with 7,400 deaths. The state added more than 3,100 cases on Tuesday.