Governor Gretchen Whitmer Monday rescinded her statewide Safer at Home order, allowing retailers to reopen June 4 and restaurants’ dining areas to reopen June 8.
Capacity limits will apply in both instances. Day camps for children will likewise be permitted to open on June 8.
Effective immediately, groups of 100 or less will be allowed to gather outdoors with social distancing. Office work that is not capable of being performed remotely can resume. In-home services, including housecleaning services, can also resume.
“The data has shown that we are ready to carefully move our state into the next phase of the MI Safe Start Plan, but we owe it to our brave front-line heroes to get this right,” Whitmer said. “While Michiganders are no longer required to stay home, we must all continue to be smart and practice social distancing, and encourage those who meet the criteria to get tested for COVID-19.”
She expects to further relax restrictions before Independence Day celebrations.
Michiganders must continue to wear facial coverings when in enclosed, public spaces and should continue to take all reasonable precautions to prevent the coronavirus from spreading; they should continue to work from home to the maximum extent possible.
Part of the move was due to hospitalizations and COVID-19-related deaths declining and that stores of personal protective equipment for health care workers could now last weeks.
Subject to local regulation, gyms and fitness centers may conduct outdoor classes, practices, training sessions, or games, provided that coaches, spectators, and participants maintain 6 feet of distance from one another during the activities. Outdoor pools can also reopen, with restricted capacity.
The stay-home order was originally slated to end June 12.
As of Monday afternoon, the county had 219 positive cases and another 37 probable cases. That’s up only slightly from last week’s 211 plus 32.
Of the 561 who had been monitored by the health department for the disease, 20 were currently hospitalized. Testing negative for COVID-19 were 4,133, up from last week’s 3,398.
The county is providing a COVID-19 dashboard www.allegancounty.org that provides this information. Click on the red COVID-19 button near the top of the website; the link to the “Allegan County COVID-19 Dashboard” is near the top of that page.
Statewide confirmed cases as of Monday afternoon grew to 57,397 with a total of 5,491 deaths attributed to the coronavirus.
Cases nationwide reached 1.76 million with 103,700 deaths as of May 31. Globally, 5.9 million had tested positive and 367,166 had died.
Drive-thru testing
Allegan County Health Department announced last week it had partnered with Intercare Pullman to offer drive-thru COVID-19 testing on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 4 p.m.
If an individual has experienced challenges in being tested and are experiencing symptoms related to COVID-19, they can call the department’s COVID-19 Hotline at (269) 686-4546 or their medical provider to be screened.
Drive-thru testing is at 5498 109th Ave., Pullman.
Symptoms related to COVID-19 include fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea.
Those with health insurance must bring their card to the testing site. However, insurance is not required for testing; those without insurance will not be charged.
More testing locations are available at www.michigan.gov/coronavirustest
This week, the health department also announced it had partnered with the Michigan National Guard and long-term care facilities to test staff and residents in Allegan County.
This testing is voluntary and the partnership provides the supplies and resources that have been a barrier to implement this type of testing previously.
The Michigan National Guard was scheduled to provide the largest one-day mass testing event to date in Allegan County on Wednesday, June 3, estimating that 1,200 staff and residents will be tested.
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