Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is calling for a two-week lockdown on high schools, youth sports and indoor dining as her state grapples with a skyrocketing COVID-19 infection rate despite having some of the toughest restrictions in the country.
During her first official press conference in weeks, Ms. Whitmer called on high schools and youth sports to “voluntarily” suspend in-person activities and for restaurants to halt in-person dining for two weeks.
She stressed she was not issuing a mandate but asking Michiganders to “redouble your efforts on these fronts for the next couple of weeks,” the Detroit Free Press reported.
“We all know what works, and this has to be a team effort. We have to do this together — lives depend on it,” she said.
Ms. Whitmer said she spoke with President Biden Thursday night but that her request for a surge in doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine went unanswered.
“As always, it was a good conversation. … I made the case for a surge strategy. At this point, that’s not being deployed. But I’m not giving up,” she said, the Free Press reported.
Case rates, test positivity rates, hospitalizations and deaths are all rapidly increasing in Michigan, and it has the most cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, second only to Florida, where coronavirus restrictions were some of the most relaxed in the country.
Ms. Whitmer, a Democrat, faced widespread criticism for her pro-lockdown approach over the course of the pandemic. Last April, in addition to her stay-at-home orders and closures of private businesses, Ms. Whitmer went a step further and banned Michiganders from traveling between two private residences and prohibited big-box stores from selling items deemed nonessential by the state.
Just last month, a western Michigan restaurant owner was jailed for operating her business in violation of COVID-19 orders.
The arrest came the same day Ms. Whitmer eased some restrictions in the state, including allowing restaurants to reopen indoor dining at 50% capacity and gyms to reopen at 30% capacity.
Ms. Whitmer defended her policies Tuesday, blaming the increase in infections on “fatigue, mobility and variance” and not on her limited reopening.
“This is not a policy problem, taking steps back isn’t going to fix the issue,” she said.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.