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Governor Gretchen Whitmer says that she will likely be extending the Stay at Home order beyond May 1st.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Whitmer said that the state will slowly re-engage the economy by loosening some restrictions, but she didn’t say what restrictions she would be loosening, or when.
“Like I said, there’s some reasons for cautious optimism,” Whitmer said about the virus’s slower spread across the state. “We need to keep it up. I want to be clear. We will likely need another short-term extension of the Stay Home, Stay Safe order. When we do re-engage, it will have to be very thoughtful and precise, mitigating risk to all, and mitigating the risk of a second wave (of illnesses and deaths).”
Whitmer says they do have a plan for re-engaging the economy, slowly. She says the Stay at Home order is working to slow the spread if the virus. Whitmer did not say how long she would extend the order for.
“We will re-engage,” Whitmer said. “We will have a plan and we will start to share that more in depth as we get closer to next week. Michiganders will still need to stay home unless they’re doing things that are explicitly permitted by the order. We’ve got to get this right. That’s the most important thing.”
She said she will be working with the governors of other Midwestern states on a regional approach to re-opening the economy. Wisconsin’s Stay at Home order was recently extended though May 26th, although Republicans in that state’s Legislature are going to court to have Democratic governor Tony Evers’ order overturned.
The Republican-controlled Michigan Legislature will also have a say in how long the order is extended for here, but Whitmer, a Democrat, made it clear this week that she feels that she has the authority under state law to extend the order whether the legislature agrees or not.
“I want a partnership with the legislature,” Whitmer said. “This is not a partisan issue. Our enemy is COVID-19. We’re all in this together.”
Michigan has nearly 34,000 positive coronavirus cases, and more than 2,800 deaths. There have been 67 cases reported in the Upper Peninsula, including 11 deaths. The leaders of U.P. health departments say, however, that there are likely many more cases up here as testing has been minimal across the region.
The Marquette County Health Department said Wednesday that it is asking people to not travel to the county to avoid spreading the virus there. People returning from their winter homes down South are being asked to self-quarantine for 14 days when they get to their homes. The governor’s current Stay at Home order prohibits all travel between homes within the state, but allows people from out-of-state to return to their Michigan homes.
Whitmer plans her next news conference on Friday. The time of that press conference has not been announced. We of course will carry that news conference live on the Radio Results Network.
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