GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - 2020 has turned 21! And thinking back on the past 12 months, there's a lot riding on this new year. But we've come a long and should feel hopeful that things will get better.
Senior Vice President of hospital operations at Spectrum Health, Chad Tuttle says from a COVID care perspective, the numbers are trending favorably.
"As we look ahead to 2021, we do see so much hope on the horizon," says Tuttle. "First and foremost, the vaccine. Nearly 10,000 of our team members have been vaccinated now, all of our front line caregivers who want to receive the vaccine will have received the vaccine by January 8. We know the seven day average of positive test is coming down, we know the number of inpatients with COVID is also coming down since the peak in late November."
After January 8, Tuttle says vaccines will go to other critical infrastructure workers and Spectrum Health will begin working with the country health departments to vaccinate many people in the community. He says the improvements we've learned to make in 2020 in areas like virtual health and curbside care will continue to get better in 2021.
Another encouraging sign of new year hope, is the birth of the first 2021 baby. Henry Daniel Normandin was born to Brooke and Thom Normandin at 12:32 AM on Jan. 1, 2021 at Mercy Health St. Mary's. He has one older brother named Oliver.
"7 lbs. 11 ounces and 20 and a half inches long," says Dad Thom. "He is doing amazing, and eating like a champ!" says mom Brooke. "We are obsessed with John Ball Zoo! Our first son loves all the animals and just running around so it will be fun to take him and experience that together.”
And about twenty minutes later, at 12:27 a.m. at Spectrum Health, the first baby girl of 2021 Sumayah was born to parents Brianna Rincones and Abdalla Abdi.
"She came at 8 lbs. 5 ounces, 21 inches long," says mom Brianna. "It is definitely a fresh start, especially her being born on New Years."
Spectrum Health says they are excited for 2021.
"As we look back there is a lot of tough lessons that we learned in 2020 but because of those lessons, the strength and the resilience of our economy, of our community, and particularly of our health care system we are very excited about the year ahead," says Chad Tuttle.
"We couldn't be more proud of our teams at Spectrum Health. Our our caregivers have had a really really tough year but they have leaned in to make sure that the needs are met in the community and through that they've developed stronger bonds with each other, stronger bonds with the community and in particular in the way that they really bring compassion to the care that they provide," says Tuttle.
Spectrum Health encourages the community to keep up with the mask wearing and the social distancing to ensure that West Michigan remains on the other side of 2020.
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