ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
Michigan Medicine nurses treating virus patients navigate risks amid surge in cases Health care workers deemed high-risk exposures struggle to obtain testing HANNAH MACKAY Daily Staff Reporter
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
DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily
(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.
Subletting difficult amid virus outbreak Filling empty apartments, houses during summer months complicated by COVID-19 JOHN GRIEVE For The Daily
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
GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily Many students continue to pay rent for their empty apartments, despite returning to their permanent residencies.
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
Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily
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
For more stories and coverage, visit
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 SUBLET, Page 3
michigandaily.com
“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. See NURSES, Page 2
ANN ARBOR
Residents: We deserve rent relief Jobs, incomes lost as economy grinds to halt BRAYDEN HIRSCH Daily Staff Reporter
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, See RENT, Page 3
NEWS.................................2 OPINION...............................4 Vol. CXXIX, No. 97 ©2020 The Michigan Daily A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
INDEX