Michigan Won’t Be Moving To Re-opening Phase 5 Before July 4th

While Governor Whitmer was hoping to have Michigan in Phase 5 of our COVID-19 reopening plan before the 4th of July holiday, she told WWJ News today that we aren’t ready to be there yet.

She told the news outlet that while as a state, we’re doing really well at social distancing and wearing masks there’s too much data coming in that shows a second wave could happen if we ease restrictions too fast.

As she told WWJ,

"We're watching the data every single day, as you know. We had a data call today and I saw reports right out of here, out of Ingham County Health Department that there was, you know, 12 or 14 cases of COVID-19 — all of whom pointed to having been at an establishment in East Lansing; an establishment that's been highlighted on Twitter and on social media for having big crowds."

WWJ says the establishment in question was Harper’s Restaurant & Brewpub which is in downtown East Lansing, and 14 people who had been inside the restaurant, tested positive for COVID-19. 

She also pointed to the flooding in Midland County and said that there were spikes in positive cases during that event too.  So the fear of moving the entire state to Phase 5 is, if people quit practicing safety protocols and drop their guard against the virus, which is still definitely a thing, we’ll be in worse shape than before.

Why is Phase 5 all the rage?  It allows indoor events of 50 people and outside events up to 250 people. Phase 5 also allows for movie theaters to open and sporting and performance venues to open with a 500 person capacity as well.  Currently, the Upper Peninsula, as well as Traverse City, are in Phase 5 already.

The reassuring thing is, as the Governor said today on WWJ, states around the country are wishing they were in the same boat as we are because we are doing what we can to prevent a surge that states like Florida, Georgia, and Texas are seeing.