Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced this morning that she is extending the state’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order until May 15 in order to slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The order was set to expire at the end of April. However, she will ease restrictions on some activities that may make life, commerce and recreation easier on many northern Michiganders.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore superintendent Scott Tucker is considering temporarily closing popular trails to the public, including Empire Bluffs and Pyramid Point, to limit large crowds from gathering on warm spring days during the coronavirus pandemic.
Social distancing in northwest Michigan during the coronavirus pandemic appears to be working, Lisa Peacock, health officer with the Benzie Leelanau District Health Department and the Health Department of Northwest Michigan, told community health partners and journalists during a conference call on Wednesday, April 1.
The paint on the parking lot was barely dry when the first car pulled up to Empire’s public beach to check out the innovative new grid that keeps vehicles, and people, more than 10 feet apart at all times. Two miles south on M-22, Harry Norconk was replanting his asparagus seeds six feet apart so the green spears won’t spread pathogens once they shoot out of the ground in mid-May.