To mitigate Michigan’s worst-in-the-nation surge of COVID-19, the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department is offering free Coronavirus rapid testing on April 26 at Suttons Bay Middle School and Pfizer vaccinations on April 22, 23, 24 and 27 throughout the two-county region for anyone age 16 or older.
In prosperous, care-free times, public health workers seem almost invisible. Because their job is to prevent health crises from happening, they remain in the background. Few people learn about their true impact. But when the COVID-19 global pandemic officially hit Michigan in March 2020, the public health department, nurses, doctors, and hospital workers suddenly played an outsized role in coaching us on how to survive this deadly pathogen, which as of April 12 has infected 1,107 in Leelanau County and claimed 16 lives. Here are the stories of a few local public health workers who have led our community response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An inordinate amount of traffic temporarily overwhelmed the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department’s website this weekend (it’s back online now), which prompted the department to post a direct link to their COVID-19 Vaccination Information Form.
The Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department has reported a daily record 34 new cases of COVID-19 for Wednesday, Nov. 18. Active COVID-19 cases (142 in Leelanau County; 125 in Benzie County) now top the number of recovered cases (134 in Leelanau; 99 in Benzie) — a sign of the pandemic’s rapid community spread.
In a unified effort to make COVID-19 testing more accessible to our region, the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department, Honu Labs, Sleeping Bear Dune National Lakeshore and Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians are joining forces to offer no-cost, drive-thru COVID-19 testing to the public on Wednesday at the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb.
Today, the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department reports a single-day record 20 new COVID-19 cases— 11 in Leelanau County and 9 in Benzie County. Yesterday the Health Department reported 11 cases—8 in Leelanau and 3 in Benzie.
The Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department will start providing drive up testing one day per week at each office starting in Leelanau on Tuesday, September 8, and Benzie on Wednesday, September 9.
Social distancing in northwest Michigan during the coronavirus pandemic appears to be working, Lisa Peacock, health officer with the Benzie Leelanau District Health Department and the Health Department of Northwest Michigan, told community health partners and journalists during a conference call on Wednesday, April 1.
Leelanau County’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 coronavirus has been released from Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. The gentleman is out of isolation, free of coronavirus, and poses no risk to the public, according to Michelle Klein, director of personal health at the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department.