LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Without providing exact metrics on what will determine whether the three week “pause” that shut down indoor dining at restaurants, in-person classes for colleges and high schools, and much more in Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer said Tuesday that discussions are underway on what the next steps in the state’s fight against the spread of coronavirus might look like.
The Governor did say she expects to have an answer by early next week.
Whitmer began the press briefing by again calling on the state legislature to pass a $100 million COVID-19 relief plan for the state, as well as pass a permanent extension of unemployment benefits.
The Governor’s original requests came in a letter dated November 25 to Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, Minority Leader Jim Ananich, House Speaker Lee Chatfield and Minority Leader Christine Greig.
The Governor is also calling for the legislature to make permanent the extension of unemployment benefits to 26 weeks in Michigan. A temporary extension passed earlier this fall expires at the end of 2020.
Whitmer is pushing the legislature to pass legislation she says will protect public health. That would include mandating the wearing of masks in public and
focusing state spending on direct public health costs like hospital overflow staffing, testing, PPE, and mitigating the spread of COVID in prisons and congregate care settings like veterans homes, adult foster care facilities, and nursing homes.
When asked about Detroit area restaurant owners attempting to rally other restaurants in the state to defy the ban on indoor dining, especially if it is extended next week, the Governor she would “discourage anyone from willfully breaking the law,” but didn’t say what if any enforcement action the state might take.
According to WDIV-TV, the owner of the Andiamo chain of restaurants wrote a letter to other Michigan restaurants urging them to defy the state health department’s COVID-19 shutdown orders and reopen.
Joe Vicari called on fellow restaurateurs to join Andiamo in reopening Dec. 9 if Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services extend the current three-week “pause.”
“We need to band together and fight this closure,” Vicari wrote. “Our industry cannot survive another long-term closure. We are stronger if we stand together and use our strength of fight back.”
In the letter, Vicari cites a Michigan Lodging and Restaurant Association statistic that claims only around 4% of COVID-19 cases in the state can be traced back to restaurants. Michigan health officials have said it’s extremely difficult to contact trace outbreaks in restaurants because of the short duration a patron may spend inside.
“Yet, she decided to close restaurants, again,” the letter says. “The malls are packed with holiday shopping, hair salons and gyms can remain open, yet our restaurants are closed.”
