Earlier this month, MDHHS activated the Community Health Emergency Coordination Center to support local and state response to the outbreak. The Michigan Health and Hospital Association has disseminated resources from Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the American Hospital Association and the CDC to members in past weeks, spokesman John Karasinski said.

The spread of coronavirus beyond China in recent days means its arrival in Michigan is more likely than not, said Dr. Rudolf Valentini, chief medical officer of Detroit Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

“About three weeks ago I said ‘You know, I don't think we need to get that worried. I think we've got this managed at the borders’,” he said.

To be safe, in early February the DMC’s Receiving Hospital set aside five specialized “negative pressure rooms” for patients possibly infected with coronavirus in its Special Pathogen Unit. The rooms bypass the emergency department and other parts of the hospitals so that interaction with others is minimal.

The five rooms were set aside for patients suffering coronavirus symptoms with a travel history to China or who had been in contact with someone with a confirmed coronavirus infection, Valentini said.

While DMC cared for one teenager in January who had visited China, results of the teen’s tests sent to the CDC were negative, he said.

So the rooms remain empty “and ready,” while doctors in the emergency room and elsewhere are continuing to see a high number of patients with other concerns — notably, the seasonal flu, Valentini said.

In fact, as the CDC issued its most urgent coronavirus warning to date, the latest flu surveillance data suggest that just under 1 in 25 patient visits in Michigan during the week ended Feb. 15 was linked to the flu or flu-like symptoms.

Among the 105 pediatric deaths this flu season across the nation, two were Michigan children. And in the five counties that are part of a state surveillance project — Clinton, Eaton, Genesee, Ingham and Washtenaw — 565 people have been hospitalized with flu or flu-like symptoms since flu season began Oct. 1.

Some public health experts, including Dr. Emily Toth Martin at the University of Michigan, have encouraged Michiganders to get flu shots not only for individual protection against the flu, but also to keep emergency rooms and doctors’ offices ready to address COVID-19 should it become widespread.