Livingston County Continues, Then Cancels State of Emergency Allowing for Virtual Meetings

- abstracted from the Livingston Daily article by Sara Kellner, 3/23/2021

The Livingston County Board resolution allows Livingston County Boards, township boards, city and school units to continue to hold their public meetings virtually.  The authority is due to end May 31, a date which can be modified by Livingston County Commissioners.

On March 15, Brighton Township's Board of Trustees decided to continue their state of emergency through July 4.

Hybrid meetings are doable, but it would cost money, according to the Livingston County Chief Information Office: $8,000 to $10,000 to purchase equipment to run hybrid meetings, plus the cost to have a staff member at each commission and subcommittee meeting to run the equipment.

 

4/13/2021   Michigan pauses Johnson & Johnson vaccine, following federal guidance, Craig Mauger and Sarah Rahal, The Detroit News

The pause on one of the three COVID-19 vaccines being administered in the state comes as Michigan continues to experience a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. On Monday, Michigan led the nation in new infections per population over the last seven days and reported a higher number of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 than the peak during the fall surge of cases. Through Sunday, at least 3.35 million Michigan's 8.1 million residents 16 or older had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine with most getting the two-dose Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.

4/12/2021   Rare COVID-19 complication is putting kids in Michigan's ICUs, by Sarah Rahal, The Detroit News

As the arteries around her heart swelled, her kidneys began failing and her hemoglobin levels dropped, doctors diagnosed her with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, often referred to as MIS-C, a rare and dangerous malady found in kids ages 2 to 15, weeks after they contracted COVID-19.  Patients predominately have gastrointestinal and cardiovascular symptoms rather than respiratory. Almost all of the 1,733 patients in the study tested positive for COVID-19, "indicating that development of MIS-C was delayed by days to weeks after initial infection," researchers noted.

4/12/2021   CDC director: Answer to Michigan surge is to 'close things down' by Melissa Nann Burke and Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News

Washington — The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contradicted the Whitmer administration Monday, saying the answer to Michigan's "acute situation" with COVID-19 is not to surge vaccines but to shut down the state and "flatten the curve."

 

"Really what we need to do in those situations is shut things down," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during a Monday briefing.

 

"I think if we tried to vaccinate our way out of what is happening in Michigan, we will be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work — to actually have the impact."

 

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has called on the administration of President Joe Biden to surge vaccines to Michigan, particularly the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Whitmer last year co-chaired Biden's presidential campaign.

4/12/2021   MIOSHA's COVID emergency office rules to be extended six months, gov says, by Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News

4/3/2021   Michigan reports 8,413 new COVID-19 cases, highest single-day total since December 4, by Minnah Arshad, Detroit Free Press

The state has a fatality rate of 2.3% among known cases, according to data from the state health department.

 

In the state’s latest update on vaccines, 94,249 doses were administered in Michigan on Thursday. The seven-day average for doses administered is 77,422. On Wednesday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer increased the state's target for daily vaccinations to 100,000 a day from 50,000 a day. Of the population 16 and older, 21.6% are fully vaccinated, with a goal of 70% vaccinated by the end of the year.

4/1/2021   Virus Surge in Michigan Is a ‘Gut Punch’ to Hopes of Pandemic’s End, by Julie Bosnan, The New York Times

DETROIT — Even as the pandemic appears to be waning in some parts of the United States, Michigan is in the throes of a coronavirus outbreak that is one of the largest and most alarming in the country. Infection levels have exploded in recent weeks, in big cities and rural stretches alike.   Michigan has more recent cases per capita than any other state, and has seen them soar in recent weeks, to more than 5,600 cases a day from about 1,000 on Feb. 21. The nation’s top five metro areas in recent cases per capita are all in Michigan: Jackson, Detroit, Flint, Lansing and Monroe.

 

On Thursday, Michigan officials announced that they had identified their first case of the P.1 variant, which has spread widely in Brazil and has now been found in more than 20 U.S. states.

4/1/2021   Opinion: Here’s why Michigan’s covid spike is so scary, by Abdul El-Sayed, MD, The Washington Post

Cases are multiplying faster than they were last fall, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) instituted a “pause to save lives,” with measures that included stopping in-person high school classes and banning indoor dining. That intervention prevented more than 100,000 covid cases, a University of Michigan study estimated. No similar measures have been launched in the Wolverine State this time, but it isn’t too late for the governor, with the help of Michiganders, to rein in the rapidly increasing threat.

 

Despite official optimism about vaccination programs nationwide, the country is still nowhere near the 70 to 90 percent inoculation rate needed to achieve the “herd immunity” needed to kill off the pandemic. Full vaccine coverage in Michigan is about 16.4 percent — similar to the national average. And there’s little room for error.

 

Vaccine hesitancy in Michigan is higher than the national average, according to a U.S. Bureau Census survey last month: Seventeen percent of Americans 18 and older say they “probably” or “definitely” won’t get vaccinated, compared with 25 percent of Michiganders. Vaccine hesitancy in Michigan is more common among people age 40 to 54, as well as Black residents, according to the survey.

4/1/2021   Michigan Confirms First Case Of The Brazil Variant, by Allen Lengel, Deadline Detroit

The news came on the same day the state reported 6,036 new Covid cases and 49 deaths.

4/1/2021   Michigan's 1st case of Brazil COVID-19 variant identified in Bay County, by Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press

This is the second new variant of COVID-19 to be identified in Bay County since last week, said Joel Strasz, the county's public health officer, adding, "The rise of these new variants definitely impact the progress we have made this year with vaccinations."

3/31/2021   Michigan leads US with highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita, more vaccines coming, by Christina Hall and Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press

Whitmer said that next week Michigan will receive more vaccines to help mitigate the surge in cases in the state. She said the state's direct allocation will increase by 66,020 doses, for a total of 620,040 vaccines, a weekly record high for Michigan. This includes 147,800 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

3/30/2021   Detroit, Wayne Co. issue state of emergency orders as COVID-19 cases rise, Sarah Rahal, The Detroit News

Denise Fair, Detroit's chief public health officer, issued the emergency public health order through May 31, saying the city needs to control the speed of the virus that is causing a steep rise in hospitalizations. The order requires that any public meetings by councils or boards subject to the Michigan Open Meetings Act continue to be conducted online.

3/30/2021   The Fourth Surge Is Upon Us. This Time, It’s Different., by Zeynep Tufekci, The Atlantic

The twists and turns of a pandemic can be hard to predict, but this most recent increase was almost inevitable: A more transmissible and more deadly variant called B.1.1.7 has established itself at the precise moment when many regions are opening up rapidly by lifting mask mandates, indoor-gathering restrictions, and occupancy limits on gyms and restaurants.

 

How do we square all this good news with what happened during a White House briefing yesterday, when CDC Director Rochelle Walensky interrupted the flow, saying, “I’m going to lose the script,” and talked of “the recurring feeling I have of impending doom.” She was visibly emotional and her voice cracked as she said was “scared,” and pleaded with Americans to “hold on a little longer.”

 

I can’t read her mind, but if I were Walensky, I’d be scared because those who are not protected through vaccination or past infection are still at grave risk, a fact that may be overshadowed by all the good news. Even as our vaccines continue to work very well against it, the particular variant we’re facing in this surge is both more transmissible and more deadly for the unvaccinated. 

3/24/2021    Livingston County COVID-19 vaccine tracker: Only 10% fully vaccinated, by Chastity Laskey, Livingston Daily

 

 

 

"Response has been about 40% negative, because a lot of people drive by and scream something at us. There have been Confederate flags," Williams said.

 

"This town, Brighton and Howell are known as 'sundown towns,' where black people know you aren't supposed to go out after dark."   

“Pastor” Robert E. Miles was the Grand Dragon of the Michigan Ku Klux Klan, and is still considered one of the most influential white supremacists of all time. Unfortunately for us, he made his home – quite publicly – in Livingston County. He moved to Howell in the early 1960s and later settled on a farm in Cohoctah Township, where he held cross-burnings and other hate rallies through the years. As we saw in Charlottesville, the racist hatred that he proudly championed lives on, as well. 

 

 

3/30/2021   Livingston County commissioners reverse emergency declaration, by Sara Kellner, Livingston Daily

During a special meeting of the board, county commissioners reconsidered and ultimately shot down a resolution to declare a state of emergency in the county.

3/30/2021   Report: Livingston County COVID-19 cases surging, nearly double February numbers, by Kayla Daugherty, Livingston Daily

"The Livingston County Health Department has identified multiple cases of the more transmissible variant COVID-19 B.1.1.7 (also known as the “UK Variant”) in Livingston County."  

3/29/2021

 

3/29/2021   Nearly 25% of Livingston County households struggle financially, according to latest report, by Jennifer Timar, Livingston Daily

3/29/2021   

Tweet Mi School Outbreaks Middle Aged Sprong Break

 

3/29/2021   Michigan's COVID-19 hospitalizations rising at faster rate than in fall, by Craig Mauger, Detroit News

3/29/2021

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2021 03 28 CDC VaccinationsByCounty WaPost

 

3/24/2021    Livingston County COVID-19 vaccine tracker: 10% people fully vaccinated, by Chastity Laskey, Livingston Daily (USA TODAY NETWORK)