(WXYZ) — Hospitals across the country, including health systems right here in Michigan, are trying to stay on top of the COVID-19 omicron surge.
Joining us for the 7 UpFront segment to talk about their efforts is the Chief Medical Officer at the DMC and Children's Hospital of Michigan Dr. Rudolph Valentini.
You can see the full interview in the video player above.
"This is definitely a big challenge for the Michigan hospitals. Southeastern Michigan has been really heavily afflicted in the past couple of weeks," Valentini says. "I think what we're focusing on, I think the biggest challenges we're seeing are staffing shortages and test kit shortages are becoming a little bit of a challenge, so I think we're all learning to become better stewards of our testing to try and avoid unnecessary testing for repeat indications. We're looking at ways to leverage these new CDC guidelines around crisis for staffing return to work so we can get people back in the workforce to protect and care for all our loved ones here in the region. We're also starting to look at new therapies because hands down the best thing we all can do is get vaccinated and get boosted, but for those that get infections, especially those that are immunocompromised, we're now looking at new oral antiviral therapies, there's also a new monoclonal antibody that appears to be best suited for the omicron variant. So these are all tactics that we're using to best position ourselves to overcome this most recent surge."
