Gov. Whitmer, Dr. Fauci is tackling Michigan’s restrictions as COVID cases rise

DETROIT Gov. Gretchen Whitmer defended its approach to combat the recent wave of COVID cases, while Dr. Anthony Fauci called for stricter restrictions in Michigan.

Read: Coronavirus in Michigan: Here’s What You Need to Know April 18, 2021

The two appeared on “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, as Michigan continues to see the worst numbers in the entire county.

Whitmer placed part of the blame on a Michigan Supreme Court decision that lifted her emergency warrants in October.

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As the number of cases continued to increase, Whitmer stood by her decision to keep the state open, while health officials urged her to do otherwise.

“The best way when you’re in the middle of a really big breakout and a big wave is to stop things a lot more,” Fauci said. “If you’re in the middle of a hotspot, it’s best to try to control it.”

Whitmer said the state is doing enough.

“We still have very strong measures to protect people,” Whitmer said. “We have mask mandates, we have capacity constraints, we have homework where we beg people to take a two-week break.”

Multiple Metro Detroit hospitals are already complaining about being inundated with patients, according to Carolyn Wilson, COO of Beaumont Hospital on Sunday ‘Flashpoint’.

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“What we’re seeing now is a combination – an increase, of course, in the number of COVID patients and many of our community people who have been delaying care, who are also receiving non-COVID care,” Wilson said. “We are quite full.”

Whitmer hinted that she did not have the same power as during the previous Stay-at-Home orders due to the Michigan Supreme Court ruling in October.

“In the dwindling months, I’ve been indicted by my legislature, I’ve lost in a Republican-controlled Supreme Court, and I don’t all have the exact same instruments,” Whitmer said.

While Whitmer said she’s starting to see the signs of the pandemic abate, she’s been asking for more doses of the vaccine, which Fauci says can’t happen at this point.

“If you take vaccines from other places and move them, you make that place vulnerable to what’s going on in Michigan,” Fauci said.

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