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Hospitals feeling relief as COVID patients decrease

An operating room in a hospital in Ethiopia.
arnitorfason
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An operating room in a hospital in Ethiopia.

Many Michigan hospitals are finally feeling some relief as the number of COVID-19 inpatients keeps dropping. But it's too soon to call the disease endemic.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are the lowest we've seen since October, but transmission levels are still really high.

Dr. Matthew Sims is Beaumont Health's infectious disease chief.

He says while he's cautiously optimistic, it's too soon to go back to "normal."

"When they say, 'Oh, you know, we're coming out of it, now we can take off the masks, now we can have our parties again.' It kind of feels like you're running a race, and the finish line's right ahead, and you say, 'I think I can take a nap.'"

That's because new variants are going to keep emerging, experts say. We just don't know how much impact they'll have yet.