A K-12 school employee has died from COVID-19, following an outbreak at a Montcalm County elementary school. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported the outbreak on Monday, September 28.
The Mid-Michigan District Health Department confirmed that a woman in her 50s died due to COVID-19, but declined to give any identifying information. William DiSessa of the Michigan Department of Education confirmed that it was a school employee.
Mark Cheatham is the health officer for the MMDHD. He says people need to take the virus seriously.
"She’s obviously not the only person who died of COVID in the state," he said. "This is a disease that kills people. We absolutely need to take this seriously, it’s not just a mild illness and it’s not harmless."
Cheatham says people put schools and businesses in the community at risk when they don't follow safety measures, like wearing a mask and physical distancing.
"It’s very important for the community to protect these schools by being safe themselves. In Mid-Michigan, that’s not the situation we have. We have pretty high rates of COVID in the community and people are not taking it seriously, they’re continuing to engage in risky behavior."
Cheatham says the death has been very traumatic for the Carson City community.
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