The Whitmer administration's about-face on allowing high school sports to begin playing again added another month of uncertainty to Michigan's restaurant and hospitality industry.
How's that, you ask?
The order issued by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services quietly extended the current 25 percent capacity limit for restaurants and bars and the 10 p.m. closure curfew until March 29 — without any explanation why from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer or MDHHS leaders. The capacity limits were supposed to expire Feb. 21.
This is yet another example of the Whitmer administration going it alone on managing the pandemic without any justification for its actions using real-time data. How would the governor's public health experts know on Feb. 4 what the trajectory of the virus will be like on Feb. 21, much less more than seven weeks into the future?
COVID-19 has been in steady decline in Michigan since early January. The daily case count is at its lowest point since early October. The positivity rate dipped below 3 percent this past week, the lowest level in more than four months.
And the mass inoculations needed to end this pandemic are finally starting to pick up, with 5.4 percent of the population now having received a second dose of a COVID vaccine.
Whitmer's mid-November "pause" of dine-in service that lasted 10 weeks this winter worked. It saved lives.
But for all the sacrifice that was made during the second COVID shutdown, Whitmer's approach now with restaurants, casinos and other places of public accommodation still lacks any real benchmarks for loosening restrictions on these businesses.
The Democratic governor has steadfastly refused to set those benchmarks — and now the Republican-controlled Legislature is blocking appropriation of some $5 billion in federal aid that's needed to reopen schools, prevent an eviction crisis and build up a better infrastructure for COVID testing, contact tracing and getting badly needed vaccine shots in arms.
As we approach the one-year anniversary of Michigan's first detected cases of COVID-19, it's high time to end this stalemate in Lansing.
GOP legislative leaders need to get in the room with the governor and stop sitting on a badly needed economic stimulus. And Whitmer needs to create some path of certainty with data benchmarks rooted in science. The Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association has proposed raising occupancy levels as the COVID positivity rate declines.
There's no disputing the governor that the pause did what it set out to do. Lives were saved. The state's hospitals averted a disaster. Now it's time to save livelihoods and establish clear benchmarks for re-engaging all sectors of the economy.
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Editorial: It's time for state to give restaurants guidance - Crain's Detroit Business
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