Much of northern Michigan reopened Memorial Day weekend as rates of COVID-19 infections continued to decrease in Michigan. However, some communities Up North were left out of reopening in Governor Grethchen Whitmer's recent order.
State Senator Curt Vanderwall represents Michigan's 35th Senate District, which includes Mason, Lake, Osceola and Ogemaw counties.
While adjacent to counties that were allowed to open, Mason, Lake, Osceola are included in Region 2 of the reopening plan, and will re-open when Muskegon does. Ogemaw is a part of Region 4, which includes Bay City.
Vanderwall says the hospitals in Region 2 are not overburdened and that should be the criteria for reopening.
"The hospital has to be our lead in this," he says. "We can’t overreact until the hospitals really say, 'Hey we’re starting to see a major problem. We need to slow down the re-opening of the state.'”