Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel recently signed off on new regulations regarding Covid-19, effective now through April 19. Among the changes, casinos may now increase occupancy to 30 percent capacity. “We have seen some of our key metrics continue to decline,” Hertel said, including fewer hospitalized Covid-19 patients; case rates plateauing at 91.2 cases per million; and a positivity rate of 3.7 percent, a slight increase over 3.5 percent in the previous week.
Governor Christine Whitmer stated, “As we continue our vaccine rollout and make steady progress against the virus, we are taking additional incremental steps to re-engage to ensure we are protecting our families and frontline workers and saving lives.”
Besides casinos, gyms also may increase occupancy to 30 percent and restaurants, retail and indoor entertainment venues can operate at 50 percent up to 100 people. Indoor public meetings and other small indoor gatherings are allowed up to 25 people and outdoor gatherings are permitted up to 300. Also, people can visit family members in nursing homes following a negative Covid-19 test.
Whitmer added, “Of course, there is a limitation. We’re doing this incrementally, but these are all the places where we can safely do more.” She noted, with the presence of a more-contagious Covid-19 strain, the state will continue to monitor daily status.
Whitmer said people who can work remotely are urged to continue to do so. Gyms, beauty parlors and restaurants still must maintain records of their patrons for contact tracing.
Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association President and Chief Executive Officer Justin Winslow stated, “We welcome the governor’s decision today to expand restaurant, banquet and meeting space occupancy and consider this change critically important, but the 6-week duration of this order is concerning and significantly too long to adapt to rapidly changing metrics around this virus.”
