Beaumont has 1,500 workers with coronavirus symptoms, including 500 nurses

About 1,500 workers — including 500 nurses — are off the job at Michigan’s largest hospital system because of coronavirus symptoms.

The employees at Beaumont Health “have symptoms consistent with COVID-19,” spokesman Mark Geary told Bridge Magazine Monday.
He said he didn’t have a count on the number of physicians sickened. The remaining sidelined workers could be anyone “throughout the system,” from front line medical staff to office personnel and others.

The sick count at Beaumont comes the same day that Henry Ford Health System said it had about 600-700 workers who had tested positive for COVID-19. Beaumont, in contrast, did not disclose how many of its 1,500 workers out with symptoms actually tested positive.

The combined numbers at Beaumont and Henry Ford are the latest indication of how fiercely the coronavirus has attacked metro Detroit. And they underscore the growing anxiety of hospital workers, most notably nurses, who are in close contact with COVID-19 patients, often without adequate protective gear because of limited supplies.

Geary said it’s impossible to know how many of the Beaumont employees were exposed through work, by other family members or in the community.

Some employees, he said, are nearing the end of their seven days at home, have no symptoms, and are nearly ready to return to work.