Whitmer: New Mandates Not Needed If People Get Vaccinated
On re-imposing restrictions, she says the surge is being driven by unvaccinated people and ordering skeptics to wear masks and get vaccinated won’t work.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday that new statewide COVID-19 restrictions are not under consideration at the moment despite the state’s soaring COVID case numbers.
Whitmer was interviewed on WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids. She was asked about re-imposing restrictions and responded the surge is being driven by unvaccinated people. She said that ordering skeptics to wear masks and get vaccinated won’t work.
“We’ve seen a real overlay of where people are getting COVID to where there’s higher unvaccinated rates,” she said. “It is absolutely, that’s what’s driving the issue that we have. So, statewide mandates don’t make a lot of sense in this moment because it is a specific population of unvaccinated folks that we need to encourage to get vaccinated.”
As of Monday, there were roughly 4,000 people hospitalized in Michigan with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases.
Rising caseloads are overwhelming many hospitals to the point that the governor asked for emergency federal assistance. The federal government agreed to send 44 military personnel and to open beds at a veterans hospital in Detroit to help short-staffed hospitals.
Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
