Michigan will reopen even more ‘in the coming days’ as COVID numbers improve, says Whitmer

LANSING, Mich. – More Michigan is expected to reopen in the “next few days”, with some restrictions on COVID-19 eased, according to the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

“We hope to make more announcements about additional re-engagements in the coming days,” said Whitmer. “Our case numbers and public health metrics are going in the right direction and we are delighted to see that.”

READING: 12 topics from Governor Whitmer’s February 24 COVID-19 briefing

THE Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued a three-week break in mid-November, and that break has been extended and revised several times in the past three months.

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More recently, the order has been quietly extended by the state until March 29, but Whitmer hinted on Wednesday that there will be more re-engagement soon.

“I’m feeling very optimistic, so let’s continue,” said Whitmer.

Visits to nursing homes and collection restrictions are among the issues being considered.

“We are watching trend lines closely,” said Whitmer. “We actually saw Michigan move to a much stronger position.

“We hope to be able to announce additional aspects of re-engagement on the (asylum) front – hopefully as early as next week.”

She said that if the state takes a step towards allowing more meetings, it will be incremental. This is to avoid a big increase in cases.

“As we are determining the next steps, this is part of the conversation we are having,” said Whitmer. “One of the things, however, that I notice, is that we know that one of the biggest propagation places this fall was in the houses. It was meetings that were taking place, where people were letting their guard down.

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“Each step we took was incremental. As we said, it is a dial, not a light switch. “

However, it does not appear that restaurants will see their restrictions loosened.

“I am hopeful that we will eventually reach that point,” said Whitmer. “But at the moment, we’ve only been doing this for a few weeks. We have to keep looking at the data. We have to make sure that we have antigen tests available. “