Health officials say they still plan to wear masks, worry about unvaccinated in Michigan
Updated May 14, 2021;
Posted May 14, 2021
A sign outside Principle Food and Drink to wear your mask in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services newest order, which goes into effect Wednesday, suspends in-person dining at bars and restaurants across Michigan for three weeks. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com)Joel Bissell | MLive.com
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So will Dr. William Sims, and Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail.
While Michigan is about to undergo a rule change over who has to wear a mask and where, numerous health officials are in agreement that the state with one of the worst COVID-19 surges in the nation is not yet to a point where it can fully give up on masking.
Michigan reopening plan encourages business leaders, who say ‘the sooner the better’
Updated Apr 29, 2021;
Posted Apr 29, 2021 Welcome back friends written on a chalkboard at a Michigan restaurant on Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com)Joel Bissell | MLive.com
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After months of begging and pleading, Michigan business leaders are getting their wish – a specific plan on what triggers the end of the COVID-19 rules.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced her “Vacc to Normal” plan on Thursday, April 29, linking Michigan’s vaccination rates to the reopening steps. Business leaders are encouraged, yet concerned the reopenings won’t happen fast enough.
Office workers can return two weeks after 55% of Michiganders 16 or older get their first shot. Capacity limits are lightened two weeks after Michigan hits 60%, capacity limits are eliminated two weeks after 65% and the entire state health order – including the mask mandate – is lifted two weeks a
The calls were suggestions, however, and not mandates sought by some health experts as cases soar and hospital beds fill amid Michigan’s third coronavirus wave.
“This is a team effort. It s on all of us to do our part by masking up and getting vaccinated to protect ourselves and our families, so we can get back to normal,” Whitmer said. “Let’s get it done.”
Whitmer also asked the administration of President Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat, to send Michigan more doses of the coronavirus vaccines, a request that has not been accepted.
Instead, she said the White House offered more therapeutic supplies, personnel and other things but not additional vaccines.