Gretchen Whitmer Leaves Door Open to Extending Coronavirus Restrictions Past July 1

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) picked two dates on the calendar — June 1 and July 1 — to repeal the remaining coronavirus restrictions, but she appeared to be leaving the door open on whether she will stick to the final one.

On Tuesday, Whitmer was asked if she will potentially alter her order lifting remaining orders on masks, crowds, and restaurant capacity limits July 1, and she left the door open, WOOD TV reported.

“You know, at this juncture, we’re two days in, so it’s way too early to assess that, but I think we’re gonna see a lot of progress, people getting back to normal and getting back in the workforce and that’s good for all of us,” Whitmer said.

On Tuesday, the governor was asked a similar question, specifically whether she could potentially move up the date for fully reopening, instead of waiting another month for no real reason.

.@GovWhitmer cannot give a straight answer when asked if the remaining restrictions will be lifted on July 1. Michigan continues to lag behind other states in lifting COVID restrictions, Michigan businesses can't afford another month of Whitmer's crippling COVID rules. pic.twitter.com/RHSDRykrjM

— Michigan Rising Action (@MIRisingAction) June 1, 2021

Whitmer said yesterday was the first day to “get out of most of the protocols that we had,” and cited no limitations on outdoor dining.

“We still know that (coronavirus) is present,” she said, hedging, noting the percentage of vaccinated residents — 59.1 percent, as of Wednesday — is “nowhere near” the 70 percent she originally mandated to reopen the state.

“We’re going to hope to get to those metrics,” Whitmer said.

“We wanted to say by July 1, we will plan on and we will— there’s nothing foreseeable that, on the horizon that will change, but of course, we always have to have a, that one footnote that all of a sudden if there was a variant that showed up in Michigan that was vaccine resistant, we might have to revisit,” she warned.

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays–download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Parler.