Gov. Gretchen Whitmer previews MI Safe Start Plan to re-engage economy
LANSING, Mich. — In a live update on Monday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer provided a first look at her plan for reopening businesses and sending Michiganders back to work.
She said at first, only sectors that posed the lowest risk would reopen.
She said she had asked for recommendations from health care leaders, but expected the following industries to go back to work first:
- Outdoor enterprises
- Residential and commercial construction
- Industrial sectors
She also revealed the health professionals who would be working on the Michigan Economic Recovery Council.
Gerry Anderson, the executive chairman of DTE Energy, then revealed the framework that would be used to make decisions about which regions to reopen the economy in.
The framework showed that regions and workplaces would be evaluated together, with decisions made on a case-by-case basis for whether to reopen.
"There is no hard and fast timeline here," Whitmer said, noting that the government would take steps back if a second wave of COVID-19 manifested.
She said she would be able to discuss the measures further at a later date.
Whitmer said she would ask the Michigan legislature for a 28-day extension to the state of emergency, which was previously set to expire Thursday, April 30.
Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state's chief medical executive, joined her as in previous updates.
Khaldun said while more cases of COVID-19 continued to be confirmed in Michigan, she remained cautiously optimistic about the outlook.
The state provided a PDF copy of the slides used during the briefing.
The update came after an announcement from the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency that more than a million unemployed workers had started receiving unemployment benefits amid the COVID-19 pandemic.