Henry Ford: 936 staffers, about 2.7% of workforce, tested positive for COVID-19

More than 900 Henry Ford Health System employees, about 2.7% of the system's workforce, have tested positive for COVID-19, a hospital official said Monday. 

In all, 3,310 employees have been tested for the virus after exhibiting mild to severe symptoms, said Dr. Adnan Munkarah, the five-hospital system's chief clinical officer. 

Of those 3,310 employees, 936 have tested positive for the virus and nearly 1,500 have returned to work after recovering or testing negative for the virus, he said. 

The hospital system employs about 31,600 employees.

Officials have seen a "day-after-day decline in number of employees testing positive," Munkarah said. 

Beaumont Health last week said roughly 1,500 of its 38,000 employees, about 3.9% of the workforce, had stayed home because they have COVID-19 symptoms. Updated numbers were not immediately available.

Henry Ford Health officials also expressed cautious optimism about its COVID-19 admission rate.

Henry Ford Health System has had a five-day period of relatively flat admissions rates with, at times, marginal decline, said Henry Ford Chief Operating Officer Bob Riney. But the Detroit-based hospital system saw a bit of a bump in admissions Sunday night, which prompted Riney to urge caution. 

The fear of medical professionals, Riney said, is that "as we report a flattening of the curve, that individuals will sort of use that as an opportunity to ease off of the social distancing."

But the flattening is likely "a direct correlation to the social distancing practices," he said. 

Overall, the hospital system has admitted 2,210 COVID-19 patients and discharged 1,266. 

eleblanc@detroitnews.com