“It’s been real scary,” said Tammara Howard, a resident of the city’s east side who is CEO and founder of a nonprofit known as What About Us, Inc.

The group is a hub for neighborhood gatherings, and Howard said many still underestimate the seriousness of the virus, despite Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order that residents stay at home until at least April 13.

“They knock on the door, and you don't want to be rude, but the virus is out there,” said Howard, who has high blood pressure and diabetes.

On Wednesday, Mayor Mike Duggan announced the city is ramping up testing and hopes to provide them to 400 people a day, six days a week for the next six weeks.

“We haven’t hit the peak,” said Duggan, who added that “four people connected to me have died in the past 48 hours.”

We haven’t hit the peak. Four people connected to me have died in the past 48 hours." —Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan

“The idea that you would just go on with life and survival of the fittest, that is not what this country is about,” he said.

‘Rapid acceleration’

Detroit’s coronavirus rate, 83 cases per 100,000 residents as of earlier this week, is nearly five times the statewide rate and more than double the next highest rate, Oakland County. Nationwide, Wayne County, including Detroit, has the 13th highest per capita rate. Oakland County is 25th.

“We’re on the rapid acceleration of the growth curve,” Dr. Betty Chu, associate chief clinical officer at Henry Ford Health System, said on Wednesday.

Dr. Marcus Zervos, a specialist in infectious diseases at Henry Ford, is working with Detroit health officials and said Michigan “has done a better job of testing than other states.”

“It’s good that we have higher numbers,” Zervos said. “It’s important. If we know who’s positive, we can implement control measures.”

Chopra, the Detroit Medical Center doctor, sad Detroiters are vulnerable because so many have underlying health conditions. Cases that in other areas are mild may instead hospitalize Detroiters or worse, she said.

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the city’s former health director, said city and state officials have “done their best given the circumstances.”

The city is full of people who are poor and marginalized. It’s the densest part of Michigan, and Detroiters in general are less healthy.” --Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, former city health director

“The city is full of people who are poor and marginalized. It’s the densest part of Michigan, and Detroiters in general are less healthy,” said El-Sayed, who ran against Whitmer for governor in 2018.

When Duggan appointed him to run the health department in 2015, it had five staffers. Today, there are 110, but about a third of them focus on animal control, according to the city’s budget.

Overall, Michigan ranks near the bottom of the nation, 43rd, on public health funding, according to America’s Health Rankings, an annual report by United Health Foundation, a Minnesota-based nonprofit.“This is what happens when you create a system built on austerity,” El-Sayed said.

“Folks are working really hard now. But they’re working from their back foot. Catching up amid a pandemic is not how you want to do it.”

Help is ‘not enough’

Amid the crisis, Detroit is ramping up efforts to provide essentials. Three of Detroit’s 11 recreation centers, which are otherwise closed until at least April 13, are repurposed to provide breakfast and lunch for children on weekdays.

“That’s helping to alleviate some of the stress of being able to have the children inside your homes fed,” said Jeremy Thomas, communications and marketing manager for the city’s parks and recreation division.

Posted hours are 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., but Farwell Recreation Center on the east side usually runs out of its 1,200 meals by 11 a.m., said staffer Terence Mercer.

“It’s not enough,” said a staffer outside the Adams Butzel Recreation Center on the west side who wasn’t able to share his name. Food at Butzel was gone by noon on a Tuesday, but “people are still coming.”

In one case, a woman said she had a household with 20 children, which was “hard to believe,” Mercer said. But when staffers drove the food over to her place, the house indeed looked full of kids.

More recreation centers will be deployed for food assistance next week, the city said, picking up from the Detroit public school system as it pares down its food delivery system from 58 to 17 locations.