Restaurants can accept twice as many indoor diners, shops and businesses can also allow more customers and private gatherings may involve more people under a new state health order set to take effect Friday.
The state will also ease mandates on nursing home visitors, allowing those who have received a negative COVID-19 test to visit their loved ones.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the changes during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
The rollback of a litany of COVID-19 regulations by Whitmer and the state health department corresponds with improving pandemic trends in the state. But it appears to contradict at least some advice from national experts, who — like the state — note that virus variants may result in more outbreaks despite increases in vaccination efforts.
“As we continue our vaccine rollout and make steady progress against the virus, we are taking additional incremental steps to reengage to ensure we are protecting our families and front-line workers and saving lives,” Whitmer said in a statement.
“Michigan is a national leader in the fight against COVID-19, and our fact-based, data-driven approach will help our state rebuild our economy and resume normal day-to-day activities. … We all have a personal responsibility to slow the spread of the virus so we can end this pandemic together.”
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The state specifically pointed to three improving benchmarks: COVID-19 case rates, test positivity rates and hospital capacity.
In Michigan, the case rate is currently about 91.2 cases per million. That’s comparable to the rate at the start of October. But there’s also some data to indicate this number could be on the rise soon.
Statewide, the seven-day average in daily cases rose to 1,107 on Monday, compared with a seven-day average of 845 new daily cases on Feb. 22, according to state data.
The test positivity rate is at 3.7%, which is up from last week’s rate of 3.5%. But it’s comparable to the rate in Michigan at the start of October, according to the state.
The percentage of hospital beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients is at 3.9%, down from its peak of 19.6% on Dec. 4. Hospitalizations in Michigan have plateaued since Feb. 19.
The rollbacks address an array of industries and come as calls for fewer restrictions have been rolling in from the business community to ease mandates.
They include:
- Restaurants and bars may have 50% indoor dining capacity, up to 100 people. Tables must still be 6 feet apart, with a max of six people at a table. A curfew on indoor dining is still in effect, but this order bumps it back from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.
- Retail shops are allowed to operate at 50% indoor capacity, up from 30%.
- Indoor private residential gatherings are capped at 15 people from three separate households. Outdoor residential gatherings are allowed to have up to 50 people.
- Indoor gatherings involving people from different households are allowed to have up to 25 people. This likely means public events, like city council meetings, and small public gatherings can legally resume in-person.
- Outdoor gatherings can resume with up to 300 people.
- Venues like movie theaters, bowling alleys and other entertainment purveyors may also increase indoor capacity to 50%, up to 300 people.
- Athletic stadiums and arenas that seat 10,000 people or fewer may allow up to 375 attendees. If the seating capacity is above 10,000, they can have 750 people.
- Casinos are allowed to function at 30% indoor capacity.
- Gyms are allowed to operate at 30% capacity, but workout machines must remain at least 6 feet apart.
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The order is set to take effect Friday and run through April 19, indicating additional changes could be made at that time.
For months, Republican critics, business associations and others blasted the governor for not having a specific red line when it comes to COVID-19 trends and easing capacity restrictions.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, continued that criticism on Tuesday.
“Today’s announcement by Gov. Whitmer is woefully inadequate, ensures we remain completely out of step regionally and nationally, and will drive more Michiganders out of their jobs and out of our state,” Shirkey said in a statement.
“The governor continues to claim her decisions are based on data and science, but she ref
uses to actually share the data or science she’s using. Without transparency, her orders look less like science and more like control. Michiganders deserve better.”
Restaurants faced two indoor dining shutdowns in 2020. The second shutdown came Nov. 18, ahead of the lucrative holiday season. The Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association (MRLA) was unsuccessful in seeking a temporary injunction for indoor dining to remain open.
More than a dozen Michigan Chambers of Commerce organizations sent a letter dated March 1 to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer urging a “graduated reopening” of restaurants, Bridge Magazine reported. The letter stated that the restaurant industry has been impacted more than others and that continues to “face barriers to remain in business.”
On Feb. 1, indoor dining could resume at 25% capacity and a 10 p.m. curfew. The order was in place for three weeks but was extended to March 29. While many restaurant owners were happy to be open at that limited capacity, others kept indoor dining closed.
Advocates for the hospitality industry have proposed guidelines that would allow indoor dining capacity to increase or decrease based on percentages of coronavirus positivity rates.
In mid-February, the MRLA released a plan to bring back “normal operations” to the hospitality industry hit so hard by the pandemic. The MRLA proposed the reopening of restaurants and bars would change based on the percentage of daily positive COVID-19 tests.
Nationwide, the restaurant industry has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. In Michigan, according to the MRLA, its industry has seen 3,000 restaurants permanently closed and job losses are a staggering 200,000 because of the pandemic.
In his briefing Tuesday, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said he has been lobbying Whitmer for some time to raise the restaurant seating capacity from 25% to 50%.
“We believe very strongly this is justified,” he said. “There is no evidence of COVID spread of people sitting down at tables in restaurants.”
Duggan said he believes the infection rate is down to the point where restaurants can open at 50% capacity and “if we get vaccinated, we can open to 100%.”
Duggan said Whitmer needs to leave the 10 p.m. curfew in place and that he supports that. He said all of the city health department enforcement actions have had to do with drinking and dancing late at night. He said officials have not had citations for the restaurants.
“It should be a very good day for Detroit restaurant owners,” he said.
While the MRLA welcomed Tuesday’s decision to expand capacity, Justin Winslow, the industry group’s president and CEO Justin Winslow, said in a statement that they are concerned with the time frame.
“… the six-week duration of this Order is concerning and significantly too long to adapt to rapidly changing metrics around this virus,” Winslow said in a statement. “While we are disappointed about the length of the Order given the fragile state of the hospitality industry and improving outcomes, we are committed to working toward collaborative and consistent — emphasis on consistent — progress toward the full reintegration of the industry as Michigan moves more fully into a new phase of this pandemic.”
Whitmer’s announcement easing COVID-19 restrictions goes against the advice of Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who on Monday said she is “deeply concerned” about the potential for a shift in the trajectory of the pandemic.
Though cases and hospitalizations have fallen significantly since their January peak, there has been a slight uptick in the last week — both nationally and in Michigan.
“The most recent seven-day average of cases — approximately 67,200 — represents an increase of a little over 2% compared to the prior seven days,” Walensky said. “Similarly, the most recent seven-day average of deaths has also increased more than 2% from the previous seven days to nearly 2,000 deaths per day.
“With these new statistics, I am really worried about reports that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from COVID-19.”
While she said she understands the temptation to ease restrictions, she argued case rates are still far too high and fewer rules would allow them to increase.
“Please hear me clearly: At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained,” Walensky said.
“These variants are a very real threat to our people and our progress. Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know can stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, not when we are so close.”
Michigan has the second-highest number of cases nationally of the B.1.1.7 variant with 422 confirmed cases, state health officials said, behind only Florida.
Contact Dave Boucher: [email protected] or 313-938-4591. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.
