Under Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s economic reopening plan there are six phases of reopening. The phase each region falls under is dependent on the number of reported COVID-19 cases. Governor Whitmer says as restaurants, bars, hair and nail salons have reopened – the Lansing and Grand Rapids regions have seen an increase in cases.
“Mid to late June we really saw a decline in the daily number of cases that we were seeing – we saw it in the teens to 10 to 20 cases per day. Towards the end of June we started to see that number jump up to the end of the 40s and into the 50s and then over the last two days we have seen over 100 cases.”
That’s Brian Hartl epidemiologist from the Kent County Health Department. The Lansing region has been elevated to “high risk.” The Grand Rapids region has been heightened to “medium-high risk.” Although the risk has increased in these regions, restaurants and hair salons remain open.
“So there are a number of metrics or indicators that the state uses to identify what risk phase the regions are in. It looks at the positive rate of tests over time and it also looks at the daily cases per million population. Regions have to meet certain criteria to move from phase to phase.”
Currently, Michigan is in Phase 4 allowing restaurants, hair and nail salons, car dealerships, retail and offices spaces open at limited capacity. On Thursday, Governor Whitmer announced she would move the state back to Phase 3 if the state sees a sustained spike in COVID-19 cases.