GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — On Wednesday, the governor's office labeled the Grand Rapids region high risk for COVID-19.
"We're not through this. COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon," says Dr. Adam London, Administrative Health Officer with the Kent County Health Department. "We're teetering on the verge of a resurgence in cases."
Joining the Lansing region with that designation, Dr. London stresses it's time to get serious.
"People's attitudes and their adherence to public health messaging has lagged a little bit," explains Dr. London.
The upgrade to high risk comes after multiple days of increasing cases. Dr. London says that could be attributed to more widespread testing, but it's the increasing positivity rate of those tests that worries him.
"That's the rate of tests that come back positive for COVID," says Dr. London. "It's stayed flat and even trended upward over the past week. That's along with the rest of the state seeing an increase in cases."
And while it doesn't mean restaurants and stores have to close again immediately, Dr. London says that isn't off the table if people don't social distance and wear a mask.
"We're learning a great deal about how effective masks are," describes Dr. London. "They aren't perfect, but they are effective in both reducing the amount of virus the infected person is putting out into their surroundings and also provides protection for the wearer in filtering out moisture particles that carry virus."
The governors office said in a statement that if we a second wave of COVID-19, the state may have to take a step back in the MI Safe Start Plan.
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