Nate Turner writes that some Michigan officials “have failed to understand their own state’s history dealing with a deadly virus. The 1918 influenza epidemic proved that statewide restrictions work and should be enforced even if officials don’t agree with them.”
COVID-19
As Michigan is in another deadly surge of COVID cases — with both positivity rates and hospitalization rates rising — the question of how much variants of the virus are driving the surge is still up in the air.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Wednesday that a total of 672,259 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 16,092 have died from the virus — an additional 6,311 cases and 10 deaths since Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Education (USED) has waived the federal requirements for school accountability in Michigan, but schools should still plan on administering standardized tests this spring.
COVID-19 metrics have met the threshold to close some businesses, but the state is keeping them open
DHHS spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said the state “will continue to monitor the data to make decisions including three key metrics: case rates, percent positivity, and hospitalizations.” Sutfin said the DHHS’ goal “is to reengage while reducing public health risk, which is why we move slowly to maintain progress and momentum with thoughtful public health measures.”
Registration is now under way for summer and fall classes at Glen Oaks Community College, and students can take advantage of an increase in on-campus classes.
On Equal Pay Day, marking the day when white women will have earned the same amount on average as men have at the end of 2020, the Michigan Progressive Women’s Caucus announced a package of bills Wednesday to address the state’s gender wage gap and form a commission on pay equity within the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.
A proliferation of low-wage and hourly jobs with few or no benefits, depleted savings and rising household costs in Michigan paved the way for a state where nearly four in 10 workers were struggling to make ends meet going into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Michigan Association of United Ways reported Tuesday.
Students at Three Rivers Middle and High Schools will resume full face-to-face instruction this Wednesday, Three Rivers Community Schools (TRCS) Superintendent Ron Moag said Monday. In a letter to parents, Moag said the move is the result of a change in the rate of recent, new cases of COVID-19 in St. Joseph County. The Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency (BHSJ) provides TRCS with updated pandemic statistics on at least a weekly basis, and Moag announced the move upon receiving a BHSJ report Monday.
The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday the $122 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding that will go to states “to support their efforts to reopen K-12 schools safely this month and equitably expand opportunity for students who need it most.”
According to a Wednesday COVID-19 data update from Sarah Lyon-Callo, director of the DHHS Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health, Michigan has the ninth-highest number of cases and the 10-highest case rate in the U.S. in the last seven days.
University of Michigan professor Melissa Borja says that as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year in Michigan, she’s concerned that acts of anti-Asian hate in America are on the rise.
Multiple companies and nonprofit groups are working to create “vaccine passports” — smartphone-based apps that would allow someone to certify that they’ve been vaccinated. The apps so far are aimed at travelers, who may be required to show proof of their vaccination status before boarding a plane or entering another country
State lawmakers have introduced bills in March on topics ranging from expanding unemployment benefits to protecting members of the LGBTQ community from discrimination to barring employers from requiring workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Glen Oaks Community College has announced plans to hold an in-person commencement ceremony to include both 2020 and 2021 graduates. The event will be live-streamed and an edited video will be made available following the event and hosted on the college’s social media sites for others to view.
A year after Michigan officials recorded the first two positive COVID-19 tests on March 10, 2020, two state lawmakers who had the virus — one Democrat, one Republican — have recovered. But their views over how to handle the pandemic that has killed almost 16,000 Michiganders underscore the Capitol’s deep partisan divide.
Watershed Voice set out to find how this pandemic is affecting young people in southwest Michigan, speaking to local mental health experts and teens alike. Throughout the past year, the coronavirus pandemic has drastically altered lives across the world; people have lost their jobs, lost loved ones, and had to put their lives on hold. That feeling of going on pause has especially affected young people, who feel removed from some of the most formative years of their lives. It’s no wonder these feelings of isolation and helplessness have taken a toll on child and adolescent mental health.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed two bills in the COVID-19 relief funding package Tuesday afternoon, but vetoed another — as promised — that would have stripped her administration of key executive powers.