Michigan Medicine nurses at high
risk of contracting the virus have
had different experiences navigating
the risk of caring for patients versus
returning to work.
Michigan
Medicine
began
conducting
in-house
COVID-19
testing for employees and patients on
March 19 and has created a COVID-19
hotline for employees and patients as
well as curbside screening by referral.
Meghan Clarke, a nurse at C.S.
Mott Children’s on the Respiratory
Intensive Care Unit, was among the
first nurses to volunteer to work in
the converted COVID-19 units. She
said the level of personal protective
equipment and other protections
provided was especially high.
“The RICU where everyone was
going at first was really the most
protected I’ve heard of in any of the
health care systems so far,” Clarke said.
“All the rooms have negative pressure,
so what that means is the air from that
room is being vacuumed back into the
room, it’s not being blown out into the
hallway. We had either an N95 face
mask that we had to be fitted for or a
(powered air-purifying respirator). If
you had the PAPR, that covered your
whole head and face, but if you were
wearing an N95, they were giving you
eye shields too.”
When Clarke began experiencing
symptoms after about a week of
working in the COVID-19 unit, she
said they were mild and could easily be
written off.
“If I hadn’t been very aware of the
situation and trying to read up as much
as I could, they were symptoms that
would have been very easy to ignore
or attribute to another cause,” Clarke
said.
Clarke has since tested positive for
COVID-19.
She said all Michigan Medicine
employees
must
go
through
occupational health services.
“We’re told at Michigan Medicine
that if we have any questions, any
symptoms, basically direct everything
to our occupational health department,
so they were the first people that I
called,” Clarke said.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, April 2, 2020
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Michigan Medicine nurses treating virus
patients navigate risks amid surge in cases
Health care workers
deemed high-risk
exposures struggle
to obtain testing
DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily
See NURSES, Page 2
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ANN ARBOR
As the spread of the novel
coronavirus forces businesses
across the state to shut down
and residents to shelter in
place,
many
people
have
been laid off, leaving them
struggling to pay rent and
other bills.
LSA
senior
Emily
Roat
lives in an Oxford Companies
property. She lost her job and
needed assistance paying her
$420 per month rent.
In an email to The Daily,
Jobs, incomes lost as
economy grinds to halt
Residents:
We deserve
rent relief
Subletting difficult amid virus outbreak
Filling empty apartments, houses during summer months complicated by COVID-19
In response to the continued
spread of the coronavirus and
uncertainty
over
when
the
pandemic may be controlled, the
University of Michigan moved all
classes for the spring and summer
terms to remote learning. For
Ann Arbor landlords and tenants,
the University’s decision means
significantly
fewer
students
looking
to
sublet
properties
during the summer months.
Many
students
leave
Ann
Arbor and return home to live
with their families or move
elsewhere for internships over
the
summer.
Because
rental
properties in Ann Arbor are
typically leased on 12-month
contracts, they are stuck paying
rent for unused houses and
apartments.
To
mitigate
the
financial burden of paying for an
empty property, tenants look to
sublet their properties to the few
students who remain for spring
and summer classes.
This
year,
however,
those
subletters may be hard to find.
The University’s move to online
courses for spring and summer
effectively eliminates the need
for
the
remaining
enrolled
students to be in Ann Arbor,
shrinking the pool of people
looking to sublet housing.
Rackham student Kamerhon
Moses is a resident in the Vic
Village
apartment
building.
When the building announced
that one of their residents had
tested positive for COVID-19,
Moses said he chose to leave.
“I decided it was probably best
to just get out of there because,
one, I have insurance that’s
only for my state, so if I get sick,
I’m kind of screwed if I’m in
Michigan,” he said. “You never
really take it too seriously until
it starts affecting people around
you, and once I heard somebody
in the building was the second
or third case in all of Michigan, I
was like, ‘Wow, this is spreading
fast and it’s probably not going to
be great if I or anyone around me
in my apartment gets sick.’”
See RENT, Page 3
HANNAH MACKAY
Daily Staff Reporter
DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily
Many students continue to pay rent for their empty apartments, despite returning to their
permanent residencies.
See SUBLET, Page 3
JOHN GRIEVE
For The Daily
BRAYDEN HIRSCH
Daily Staff Reporter