Dr. Teena Chopra has been an infectious disease specialist in Detroit for 15 years, and says the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is “like nothing any of us have ever seen before.”

“It seems like the sky is falling,” said Chopra, who works for Detroit Medical Center. “It seems like I’m flying a plane and I’m learning how to build it while I’m flying it.”

Dr. Matthew Sims, an infectious disease specialist at Beaumont Hospitals, feels much the same way.

“A large portion of the population is becoming infected,” he said. "People are dealing with shortages of supplies and not really knowing what the best way to treat these patients, although everybody’s got ideas.

“Some people liken it to being in a war,” he said. “And we are at war with this virus.”

DMC and Beaumont are among the Detroit-area hospitals at the epicenter of Michigan’s coronavirus crisis. In the past 10 days, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Michigan has gone from 80 to more than 3,600. The vast majority of those cases -- 83% as of Friday -- are in metro Detroit.

“Southeast Michigan is pretty much exploding with exponential growth of COVID patients, and hospital systems are being overwhelmed,” Chopra said.

It’s fast developing into a dire situation, one that has drawn the attention of Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan’s chief medical executive, and as well the U.S. surgeon general.

Why has Michigan became an epicenter for coronavirus?

Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Friday that the situation in metro Detroit is likely to worsen over the next week, along with Chicago and New Orleans.

Meanwhile, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state’s chief medical executive, is worried about the increase in coronavirus cases in the Detroit area.

“It’s important that we take that seriously and focus our efforts on that," Khaldun said. “Our hospitals are at capacity in southeast Michigan.”

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What’s keeping her awake nights, Chopra said, is worrying about the Detroit area’s vulnerable population -- those who lack resources to see a doctor or go to the hospital; the people with pre-existing health conditions that put them at risk of coronavirus complications; the worry that the surge of patients will be so great “we may not have room for everyone.”

“This is everyone’s worry in southeast Michigan,” Chopra added. “Every hospital is struggling with the same worry of not enough resources."

Chopra said she looks at the stories coming out of New York City and suspects Detroit will be next.

“We’re getting there very fast,” she said. “It’s going to happen. It’s inevitable.”

Sims said he worries most about the unknowns: How many people are actually infected? How big is the problem? What are the most effective treatments? Will there be enough ventilators? Once this wave of cases dies down, will conoravirus coming roaring back in the fall?

“What keeps me awake at night is now much we don’t know,” he said.

But those are longer-term worries, the doctors acknowledge. What’s much more immediate is the shortage of medical supplies and equipment. That include personal protection equipment -- or PPEs -- such as masks and gowns; coronavirus test kits and the supplies needed to conduct the tests; ventilators, and more hospital beds.

“We need more resources in the form of additional beds and nurses and staff who can come and take care of the excess number of patients we’re going to see,” Chopra said. “We will be overwhelmed very quickly, and we will burn out and the health-care workers will also get infections -- more and more and more we will see surges in health-care workers, front-line staff who get sick.”

The shortage in personal protective gear is a huge, immediate concern, Sims said. “The hospitals need it desperately. We are falling back on emergency measures to reuse protective gear-- use one mask throughout the day instead of changing masks for every patient. Minimizing the number of people who go in a room to save the equipment, because there’s only so much equipment to go around."

U.S. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, said obtaining more protective gear for health-care workers is a “No.1 priority” right now.

“Ramping up production of supplies is critically important because one thing you can’t ramp up are doctors and nurses,” he said. “We have to protect the doctors and nurses and other medical professionals so they don’t get sick, because we’re going to need them to continue to provide care to people in the weeks and months ahead. The priority is to keep them healthy.”

But there’s a nationwide shortage of those supplies, Peters said, and it now appears the Federal Emergency Management Agency has “bought up” personal protection equipment, with the intention to distributing them to states.

The problem with that, Peters said, is that FEMA’s distribution formula is based on population rather than coronavirus caseload.

“That’s simply wrong, given where we are with these disease,” said Peters, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees FEMA.

“The primary factor should be need. We’re in a triage situation right now,” Peters said. “We don’t have sufficient PPEs to send to everybody around the country, and it’s going to take some time to get to the point where manufacturers ramp up their production. So in the meantime, we need to make it a priority to send equipment to those places that need it the most.”

It’s a grim situation, Sims said. But, he added, “I’ve seen lots of amazing people do lots of amazing things to try to help the situation.”

“If you walk through Beaumont, you’ll see thank-you sign for the nurses, thank-you signs for the doctors, thank you to everybody, #wegot this -- and I think we do,” Sims said.

“I don’t think it’s going to be easy,” he said. “There are going to be difficult times ahead. But hopefully, it will be relatively short-lived.”

Read all of MLive’s coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus.

Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.

CORONAVIRUS PREVENTION TIPS

In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Carry hand sanitizer with you, and use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home ( door handles, faucets, countertops ) and when you go into places like stores.

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