Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order Friday extending the state’s stay-at-home order through at least the middle of May, but she also loosened some restrictions, allowing some businesses to return to work.
“The more that we observe this the stronger our economy is going to be when we do fully reengage over the course of weeks and months and days,” said Whitmer.
Michigan’s stay at home order, extended.
But Governor Whitmer says based on the state’s coronavirus data in recent days, some activity can resume.
“What we need to do is assess for risk. Getting down to zero risk is not possible in this moment, but we have every responsibility to make sure that we mitigate the risk down to making these workplaces as safe as possible,” said Whitmer.
As for what’s next, the state’s chief medical officer says that depends on several factors.
“We will continue to monitor closely where the disease is in the state, and the number of deaths, both at a state and a regional level as we have been, we will continue to monitor our healthcare system capacity, making sure our hospitals have enough PPE, ventilators and equipment,” said Dr. Joneigh S. Khaldun, Chief Medical Executive for Michigan.
But Governor Whitmer says there are reasons to be optimistic, noting the moves made today happened sooner than expected.
“It’s a week before anyone expected us to do anything based on the timeline in the last execute order, we thought now is an appropriate time. Just because this goes to May 15 doesn’t mean nothing else is going to happen between now and then,” said Whitmer.
The governor said she hopes next week to lay out more details about what reopening the states economy will look like.
You can read the full executive order .
And as the governor made that announcement, the legislature was also in session in Lansing.
They were working on legislation that would limit the governors emergency powers.
They also formed a committee to look into the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the members of that committee is Lake Ann Republican State Representative Jack O’Malley.
He says he especially wants to look into the states emergency preparation plans for a future pandemic response.
“I’m not going into this with any preconceived gotcha, I want to find out what went wrong and I want to find out what went right and I think that’s the way we should approach this,” said O’Malley.
The committee could meet as early as next week.
Governor Whitmer has said she would veto the legislation limiting her emergency powers if it reaches her desk.
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