Michigan’s COVID-19 surge is the worst in the nation. Whitmer is focused on vaccines, not restrictions. Updated 8:34 AM; Today 8:34 AM Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer talks with Detroit Lions Team President and CEO Rod Wood as they walk off the stage after a press conference announcing a mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Ford Field in Detroit, on Thursday, March 18, 2021. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com) Facebook Share Last week at an event hosted by the Michigan Chronicle, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer did a rare in-person interview. She had been doing most of them remotely due to the risk of COVID-19, and the risk wasn’t any lower that day, as she sat in the studio unmasked.