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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at City Bird on Canfield Street in Detroit this summer. (Photo: State of Michigan)
Hoping to control the rising number of Covid cases. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday signed an order directing the Michigan State Police and other agencies to get tougher about enforcing mandatory masks and business capacity limits.
"Ensuring these executive orders are enforced across the state will protect Michigan families, small businesses, and the first responders on the front lines of this crisis,” Whitmer said in a statement. “This fight is not over yet. During the month of July we saw an increase in positive Covid-19 cases in every region of the state."
State enforcers could suspensed a license or end operations of food establishment if necessary.
Michigan State Police will enforce the order "in the same manner as any other violation of law, applying their discretion as appropriate," a press release said.
The new order says: "A single failure could set us back weeks: an outbreak at an East Lansing bar, one of the largest so far in the United States, resulted in 187 known infections. And these infections then metastasize to other communities, endangering our seniors, our vulnerable populations, and our recovery."
It adds that state authorities should give "elevated importance to enforcement" to establishments with well-documented cases of Covid, including nursing homes, meat processing plants and agricultural labor camps.
