Washington – While Michigan is struggling with an increase in coronavirus cases, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer continued to push the Biden government to send more vaccine doses to the state to combat the ongoing crisis.
“We are seeing a boom in Michigan, despite the fact that we have some of the strongest policies in place, mask mandates, capacity constraints, to work from home. We have asked our state to maintain a two-week break,” he said. Whitmer said in a statement. interview on “Face the Nation.” “Despite all this, we’re seeing an increase because of these variants. And that’s exactly why we’re really encouraging them to think about vaccinating in the state of Michigan.”
Whitmer first publicly urged the Biden government on Friday to send more doses of the coronavirus vaccine to the state as it experiences an increase in cases, hospitalization and deaths. But while Michigan is one of the worst coronavirus hotspots in the country, the federal government did not want to send more shots to the state and upheld its plan to distribute doses based on the adult population.
Jeffrey Zients, the coordinator of the White House COVID-19 response team, did say that the administration would send more vaccines, supplies, treatments and treatments to Michigan.
However, Whitmer said the state has the ability to get more shots in the arms, and warned that maintaining rigid plans for the distribution of vaccines could also harm other states if they break out.
“In an enterprise of this magnitude, with such consequences, it’s important to realize where adjustments may need to be made along the way,” she said, adding that more than 1 million shots have been fired in Michigan over the past two weeks. .
According to her, the state has “thousands of partners” who are ready to administer the vaccines, but “we just need the vaccines to get to Michigan.”
“If there’s a boom, we think it’s important that we move in where the need is, because what’s happening in Michigan today may be what’s happening in other states tomorrow,” Whitmer said. “And so it’s up to all of us to realize that we can stick where we see hotspots. It’s in everyone’s best interest.”
According to the Thursday, Michigan administered more than 5.3 million doses of coronavirus vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. While residents of the state who are 16 years and older are eligible to receive their shots, Whitmer has ceased not to meet the requirement for residents to make an appointment to be vaccinated, which raises vaccine rates in communities that have access to the internet has, increase.
“We had an appointment process and it worked pretty well,” she said. “And I think we’ll continue to see with more vaccines that it works well.”
While Whitmer has applied some of the country’s stricter mitigation measures during previous eruptions of coronavirus infections, she would also not commit to having children vaccinated before going back to school. Pfizer said last week it had asked the FDA to authorize the vaccine for adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15.
“The schools can do that. At this stage we are not having the conversation,” she said. “I can tell you this. We still had good mitigation policies. We kept moving shots and arms. And all this despite the fact that I have a reduced number of powers due to the antagonism of my own legislature. “So there is no discussion on that front. But we encourage schools to move forward, to take a break immediately and issue policies to keep their students and staff safe.”
Whitmer attributed the increase in coronavirus infections to low infection rates, meaning fewer people have antibodies, the prevalence of variants and fatigue of residents to limit their activities.