LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the state health department director Robert Gordon announced Friday that the state is lifting a moratorium on in-person instruction for high schools, and college starting in Janurary.
“The pause is working,” Gordon said during the briefing.
The Whitmer administration also announced the reopening of entertainment facilities without concessions, and a continued ban on indoor dining.
The extension of the epidemic order would run through Friday, Jan. 15, 2021.
On Dec. 21, high schools could reopen for in-person learning, according to the order. Colleges and universities would be able to have students return to campus for the winter semester, with a voluntary commitment to wait until Jan. 18 to restart in-person courses.
The order also allowed casinos, bowling centers and movie theatres to reopen with total capacity capped at 100; food and drink concessions closed; and social distancing requirements in place.
Whitmer said if the state continues to see a decline in cases and other positive signs, her administration would consider lifting restrictions sooner.
The extension of the COVID-19 order continued to place a ban indoor dining.
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun also spoke at the briefing held at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18, 2020, explaining that she’s gotten her COVID-19 vaccine. She also said the state is seeing drops in the number of cases across the state.
On Dec. 7, Gordon extended the order, known as the three-week pause, through Dec. 20.
In the state’s latest briefing, leaders said they are analyzing hospitalizations, daily case counts and test positivity rates to determine the next step to slow the spread of the virus.
On Friday, Khaldun said the state saw improvements across all three following the “pause” implemented in mid-November:
- Hospital capacity dedicated to COVID-19 patients:13-day decline; current capacity is at 17.3% for beds with COVID-19 patients. Peaked at 20.1% on Tuesday, Dec. 1.
- Overall case rates: 27-day decline; currently at 439 cases per million. Peaked at 739 cases per million on Saturday, Nov. 14.
- Positivity rate: 11-day decline; currently at 10.6% positive tests. Recently peaked at 14.3% on Friday, Dec. 4.
As of Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020, the state reached 450,776 COVID-19 cases with 11,208 deaths related to the virus.
Friday’s expected news briefing came on the heels of a panel of experts recommending the second COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The agency was expected to approve the vaccine.
The FDA advisers Thursday, in a 20-0 vote, agreed the benefits of the Moderna vaccine outweighed the risks for those 18 years old and up.
The FDA already gave the green light for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which has already been administered to health care workers throughout the state.
The Pfizer vaccine was approved to be safe and effective for use in adults and teenagers 16 and older.
