Michigan is experiencing a COVID-19 surge comparable to spring 2020 based on current trends, said Sarah Lyon-Callo, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) director of the Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health. Although the number of vaccinated Michiganders is slowly growing, the increase in all COVID-19 metrics is growing much faster.
Author: Michigan Advance
Top U.S. health officials announced a plan Wednesday to begin offering COVID-19 booster shots to Americans starting Sept. 20, with the scheduling of the additional shot to be based on when a person was fully vaccinated. The new round of jabs will be extended to those who received the two-dose vaccine from either Pfizer or Moderna, and can be taken eight months after an individual’s second dose.
As Michigan lawmakers and environmentalists are working to mitigate the effects of recent natural disasters fueled by climate change across the state, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report last week highlighting that global warming is posing more of an immediate existential threat than previously thought.
If passed, the John Lewis Voting Rights and Advancement Act would establish a preclearance formula that would require some states that want to make changes to their voting laws to receive permission from the Justice Department first.
In just over 17 months COVID-19 has infected 922,687 Michiganders in total. The state hit the grim milestone of 20,000 COVID-19 deaths on Friday, with the state reporting Monday that 20,030 total residents have now died.
The dark and complex legacy of Native American boarding schools is not unique to Canada. The United States’ implementation of the residential school system closely mirrors its northern neighbor. But the American government has done far less to acknowledge that history or even mention it in history books. That is, until recently.
Michigan’s population increased slowly over the past decade and became increasingly more diverse, but the population of Detroit decreased for the seventh decade in a row, according to 2020 U.S. Census data released Thursday.
The COVID-19 patients filling Michigan’s hospitals are mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. They hail from throughout the state, from the tip of the Upper Peninsula to the Ohio and Indiana borders; they live in city apartments and old farm houses on land dotted by cornstalks. They are younger than many of the COVID-19 patients in the past — parents with small children, recent graduates, people heading into their first-ever jobs. And, overwhelmingly, they are unvaccinated.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Wednesday that a total of 916,006 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 19,982 have died from the virus — an additional 2,786 cases and 24 deaths since Monday.
Michigan Advance’s Susan J. Demas holds nothing back in this scathing op-ed about the current state of affairs in America as it pertains to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the Senate gears up to pass a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, Michigan’s senators say it would be a big shot in the arm for Great Lakes restoration efforts, broadband access, roads, bridges, highways and electric vehicle expansion.
A House panel released a new report on Friday that will help lawmakers craft legislation named after the late Georgia civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis that aims to protect voting rights across the United States.
Fair and Equal Michigan, the group aiming to amend the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to expand anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ residents, filed an appeal with the Michigan Supreme Court Wednesday after the Board of State Canvassers last week rejected the group’s petition.
The Michigan AFL-CIO drew up its own set of state legislative maps for the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) to consider before the panel begins crafting new U.S. House and state House and Senate district lines for the next 10 years.
David Hecker writes, “Under (the School Aid budget bill), foundation allowance funding for public schools across the state will be equal, meaning nearly every district will receive the same dollar amount per student. This is a positive change that will benefit students and educators — but, as (Gov. Gretchen) Whitmer herself acknowledges, it’s not enough.”
The COVID-19 transmission rates in 32 Michigan counties — 21 more than last week — are considered “high” or “substantial,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). St. Joseph County is among the areas with “substantial” transmission rates.
Rick Haglund dissects whether Michigan can “grow its blue economy while being good stewards of the state’s most important natural resource.”
The nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency (SFA) has calculated that, given the state’s current trajectory, it will take until mid-November for Michigan to reach the desired 70% vaccinated threshold to help stop the spread of COVID-19.