Michigan presses vaccination

No new limits amid surge in COVID cases, hospitalizations

DETROIT — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration is focusing on getting more people vaccinated, not imposing new restrictions on the economy, despite a wave of COVID-19 cases and crowded hospitals, Michigan’s health director said Wednesday.

Elizabeth Hertel noted that indoor high school sports, a source of infections, are wrapping up soon, and spring sports are outdoors where close contact is less likely. All teen athletes must be regularly tested, a rule that began Friday.

Hertel spoke to reporters while more unflattering statistics emerged. Michigan was No. 1 in the U.S. for new COVID-19 cases: more than 46,000, or 469 per 100,000 people, in the past seven days, the federal government reported Wednesday, far ahead of New Jersey at 321.

The state health department reported 8,000 new cases Wednesday and 30 more deaths.

About 37 percent of residents 16 and older have had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Detroit, which is lagging behind other areas in Michigan, will spend $1.2 million to send people door to door to promote the shots.

Earlier, in Washington, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Michigan to come up with “stronger mitigation strategies” that decrease community activity.

The number of people with COVID-19 admitted to Michigan hospitals has doubled every 12 to 14 days for three weeks, the state said.

Separately, the Biden administration, citing the pandemic, removed work requirements for people getting Medicaid health insurance benefits through the Healthy Michigan plan.

“The potential for coverage loss among Medicaid beneficiaries … would be particularly harmful in the aftermath of the pandemic, and makes the community engagement requirement impracticable,” said Elizabeth Richter, the administrator of Medicaid and Medicare.

In other developments:

■ The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, says the coronavirus variant first identified in Britain, formally known as B.1.1.7, is “now the most common lineage circulating in United States.”

■ Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall announced Wednesday she is using her office’s emergency powers to keep a mask mandate in place after the statewide requirement that face coverings be worn in public to help stop the spread of COVID-19 ends on Saturday.

■ Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey urged people to use common sense in the fight against the coronavirus as she lifts the state’s mask order.

■ The federal government is expanding COVID-19 vaccine access to all federally qualified community health centers.