Advocacy News – March 2, 2021
Earlier today, Governor Whitmer announced the issuance of an updated Gatherings and Face Mask Order. The new, loosened restrictions go into effect on March 5th and will remain in effect until April 19th. A key part of today’s announcement was increased capacity for restaurants and bars which is encouraging after the Michigan Chamber, along with other members of the business community called for this action late last week.
A high-level overview of the changes are as follows:
- Restaurants and bars are allowed to be at 50% capacity up to 100 people. Tables must be six feet apart with no more than six people per table. There is now an 11 p.m. curfew.
- Indoor non-residential gatherings where people interact across households are permitted up to 25 people, allowing public meetings and other small indoor gatherings to resume.
- Outdoor non-residential gatherings where people interact across households are permitted up to 300, allowing larger outdoor events to resume.
- Indoor entertainment venues are allowed to be at 50% capacity, up to 300 people.
- Exercise facilities are allowed to be at 30% capacity with restrictions on distancing and mask requirements.
- Retail is allowed to be at 50% capacity.
- Casinos are allowed to be at 30% capacity.
- Indoor stadiums and arenas are allowed have 375 if seating capacity is under 10,000; 750 if seating capacity is over 10,000.
- Outdoor entertainment and recreational facilities may host up to 1,000 patrons.
As far as residential gatherings go, indoor gatherings are now limited to 15 people from three households, while outdoor residential gatherings can include up to 50 people.
As before, employees who work in jobs that cannot be performed from home can continue to go to work, while employees who can work from home must continue to do so. The Michigan Chamber is discouraged that none of the new provisions of the latest order included safely reopening office work. Last week, the Michigan Chamber and other business organizations sent Governor Whitmer a letter to allow for the gradual reopening of office work. The Governor did announce the formation of a workgroup to begin looking into allowing for office workers to return to work but, case numbers are drastically lower than they have been throughout the pandemic and, with all the other reopening announcements, it does not make sense to continue to restrict office work.
Further resources on today’s announcement can be found here:
For more information on today’s announcement, please contact Dan Papineau at dpapineau@michamber.com.