In Michigan, nearly 2,000 nursing home residents have perished from the coronavirus, and 20 nursing home workers have died. That represents more than a third of the state’s total coronavirus deaths. But an open records request by local media has found that just three days after the state’s first confirmed coronavirus case, the head of the state nursing home association proposed that coronavirus patients be sent to empty facilities for quarantine. Instead, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered patients sent to nursing homes where they were supposed to be isolated from other residents. Republican lawmakers and at least one Democratic lawmaker have called on Whitmer to end that policy and send coronavirus patients to separate facilities.
