Coronavirus

A few weeks ago, IPR reported on the problems facing rural schools in northern Michigan before next fall. Now, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has provided a roadmap for them to reopen.

But there is still a lot of uncertainty on what next school year will look like.

The coronavirus is starting to creep back into northern Michigan. 

Update 6/22/20: Northwest Michigan Health Services corrected numbers it shared with IPR. 

Michigan schools are preparing for some of the deepest funding cuts in nearly three decades. Some small rural school districts Up North hope to avoid layoffs or cut programs.

They’re more worried about the basics, like bussing, hiring and cleaning.

More than a decade ago, Megan Madion had a severe bike crash that shattered her pelvis. To get moving again, she developed a workout, called Modus. Greek for “the method,” the workout philosophy is: a well functioning core and glutes are the foundation for healthy total body movement.  Since then, she’s opened the gym Modus 45 in Traverse City, hired instructors and grown a loyal following. 

In the early days of the pandemic Munson Healthcare administrators were in a flurry of panic.

Analise Buhr dreamed of studying fashion design in New York and moved to the city near the end of 2019 to pursue her dream.

All of that was swept away in a day due to coronavirus.

“I was working in Manhattan in ABC Kitchen, that’s a Jean George Restaurant in the City,” Buhr said. “They closed on March 14th.”

She had to decide quickly what to do.

When the world   started to shut down in mid-March, Heather Aldridge was in India helping her friend Mohit Shukla feed the poor. She didn’t think much about a pandemic, until she was in a packed overnight train without much circulation.

“It started to dawn on me; oh, this could be a concern,”  Aldridge said.

She started looking for flights home, but everything was booked. Then India mandated a national lockdown.

There continues to be few new COVID-19 cases reported in northwest lower Michigan. No positive diagnoses were added to the region Tuesday. This weekend, the state only revealed a new diagnosis in Wexford County and two in Otsego County. 

Parts of Traverse City's Front Street will be closed to vehicles to make more room for pedestrian foot traffic this summer. The City Commission approved the proposal at a virtual meeting Monday night.

Some businesses in northern Michigan reopened Friday, with restrictions, under an executive order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

While many welcomed the news, some businesses are playing it safe.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer says some rural regions of the state can partially re-open Friday, May 22 due to low COVID-19 infection rates. Restaurants and bars will be able operate at 50 percent seating capacity in the Upper Peninsula and 17 counties in the northern Lower Peninsula.

Michigan is working with the National Guard to test all inmates in state prisons. It’s one of the first states in the country to do widespread coronavirus testing in prisons, which have become hot spots for the virus.

Update 5/14/20: IPR has learned the inmate hunger strike mentioned in the following story ended on May 13. 

As several hundred prisoners from California saturate North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, more than 100 inmates started a hunger strike, refusing food until they’re tested for COVID-19.

All of this is happening as cases of coronavirus double at the immigrant prison.