By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


There’s still no formal decision on whether current COVID-19 orders will be extended.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued a three-week order in November that closed high schools to in-person instruction, stopped organized sports, prohibited indoor restaurant dining and closed various entertainment businesses. The order is supposed to expire on Tuesday. At a press conference Thursday, Governor Gretchen Whitmer said no decision has been made but they’re looking at data every day and trying to make decisions with the best information they have. Whitmer said as they get a few more days of information, they’ll be in a much a stronger position to assess if there are some things that are safer to do. She said having to make some extensions of the current pause in some realms is “sadly possible” because of the sheer volume of COVID-19.

Whitmer said they’ll continue to look at data and case positivity rates while working closely with health systems to know how serious the impact has been. She noted there was a concerning amount of activity that happened around Thanksgiving that will make this month and possibly next month because of Christmas potentially spreading events. The Governor urged people to take things seriously and do their part by wearing a mask and avoiding gatherings and travel – adding if everyone could stay in place for three weeks, this virus would be gone.

The availability of a COVID-19 vaccine and new quarantine recommendations were also highlighted during the press conference.

MDHHS Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun said Michigan has seen a slight decline in the rate of new cases over past 13 days but case rates remain alarmingly high – adding rates are five times than in the beginning of October. Many hospitals were said to be at or near capacity and Khaldun reported that 81% of hospital ICU beds are full across the state. She says they continue to work with local health departments on reaching out to positive cases to identify their close contacts and potential outbreaks but at the current rates, state and local public health workers are not able to keep up so outbreak data is limited. Khaldun said they’re also still identifying many outbreaks across the state associated with long term care facilities, K-12 schools, manufacturing, healthcare, office settings, restaurants and bars.

Khaldun said Michigan has continued to follow the latest science and data for quarantine based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recently revised quarantine guidelines for people who may have been exposed to the virus. Based on the new data, the CDC has offered options for how to potentially shorten the quarantine period in certain circumstances. Khaldun said 14 days still remains the gold standard and is safest way to know someone won’t develop an infection after exposure to COVID-19 but local and state public health staff now have the option to allow people who have not developed symptoms during the ten days after an exposure to be released from quarantine. However, she says people should still continue to check for symptoms daily for the entire 14 days after exposure. Khaldun added that the MDHHS will continue to evaluate data to potentially reduce the quarantine period further in the safest way possible.

Khaldun said they’re working with various partners and hospitals to plan and be ready for when a vaccine is available, which could be as early as December 15th. She said it’s exciting and they want people to start thinking about their plans to get the vaccine as it becomes available. Khaldun stressed they will not promote any vaccine in Michigan unless the science is clear that it is safe and effective.