Michigan restaurants have been closed for indoor dining since Nov. 18 and were expected to reopen Monday, Feb. 1. | Pixabay
Michigan restaurants have been closed for indoor dining since Nov. 18 and were expected to reopen Monday, Feb. 1. | Pixabay
Michigan is one of three states that currently has a ban on indoor dining due to COVID-19, and the governor appears to be reluctant to make a change.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has hinted that the restaurants could reopen on Monday, Feb. 1, but also sent mixed signals on the possibility of bringing relief to the industry. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy reported that the governor has three metrics upon which she is basing her COVID-19-related decisions: daily positive tests, percentage of hospital beds used for COVID-19 patients and test positivity rates, areas in which the state has shown improvement since Michigan closed restaurants to indoor dining on Nov. 18.
What makes the possibility of restaurants reopening difficult to pinpoint is the governor’s refusing to put benchmarks in place, in terms of exactly which metrics need to be met in order to reopen indoor dining. Business owners do not have an idea of how to plan for moving forward.
Casting further doubt on the possibility of a February opening is the governor's concern about the new coronavirus variant, which appears to be more infectious than the one we currently are dealing with. This was identified first in the U.K., and it is assumed to be present in the U.S., though Michigan has not documented any cases yet.
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