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New constitutional amendment could nullify GOP-led efforts to restrict voting
A new ballot initiative filed with the Michigan Secretary of State Monday could nullify Republican-led efforts to restrict voting and enshrine a series of voting rights — including barring partisan interference in future elections — in the state’s constitution, election experts said Monday. The “Promote the Vote 2022” ballot initiative would amend the state constitution […]
‘We can’t tell them to go live in a bubble’
When Dr. Peter Gulick works with his patients who have HIV/AIDS, he always recommends they get the third COVID-19 vaccine shot that’s been available to immunocompromised individuals since August. For the approximately 7 million people living with weakened immune systems living in the United States, that third shot has represented a chance to avoid becoming […]
10M free KN95 masks are now available to Michiganders, Whitmer announces
Ten million free KN95 masks are now available to Michiganders as they continue to face the fast-spreading omicron variant of COVID-19, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday. The KN95 masks are better suited than loosely woven cloth coverings — such as the ones largely available at the beginning of the pandemic — to protect people from […]
State reports 27,423 new COVID-19 cases since Monday
On Wednesday, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported that a total of 1,933,062 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 29,605 have died from the virus — an additional 27,423 cases and 379 deaths since Monday. The new numbers combine Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s recorded cases and deaths, with an average of […]
Michigan has 6th-lowest nursing home staff vaccination rate in country, feds say
As the deadline nears for health care workers to become vaccinated against COVID-19, Michigan still has a ways to go before its nursing home workers meet federal requirements. About 72% of nursing home workers in Michigan are fully vaccinated, according to the newest numbers from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The […]
Is this ‘the beginning of the end’ of Michigan’s 4th COVID surge?
Updated 5:21 p.m., 1/20/22 with additional information about the omicron variant’s peak Every day, Dr. Russell Lampen braces himself for a report that comes to the infectious disease expert: the people who have died from COVID-19 at Spectrum Health in West Michigan. “It’s five to seven people every day,” said Lampen, the division chief of […]
Online orders for free at-home COVID tests to begin Jan. 19
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Friday launched a new website for Americans to request up to four free COVID-19 tests per household. The administration is buying 1 billion at-home rapid COVID-19 tests, and Americans will be able to begin ordering the tests online on Jan. 19 at COVIDtests.gov. This is part of the administration’s effort to […]
Michigan has 4,778 people hospitalized with COVID-19, with 502 on ventilators
On Friday, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported that a total of 1,746,707 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 28,479 have died from the virus — an additional 37,114 cases and 251 deaths since Wednesday. The new numbers combine Thursday’s and Friday’s recorded cases and deaths, with an average of […]
DHHS: More than 1 in 10 Michiganders had COVID-19 in 2021, 1 in 650 died
More than one in 10 Michiganders had COVID-19 in 2021, and approximately one in 650 Michiganders died from COVID-19, according to information Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Tuesday. DHHS reported Wednesday that a total of 1,709,593 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 28,228 have died from the virus — an […]
Benton Harbor water crisis is the ‘ultimate inexcusable repeat of history,’ 3rd lawsuit says
State officials’ decisions around the water crisis in Benton Harbor, including allegedly pushing off a corrosion control study, left “thousands of people to drink and use knowingly unsafe lead-contaminated water,” according to a new class-action lawsuit. “It has been less than six years since the declaration of emergency that made the Flint water crisis worldwide […]
Police investigating ex-Speaker Lee Chatfield for allegedly sexually assaulting child
Michigan State Police are investigating former state House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) after a woman filed a criminal complaint accusing him of sexually assaulting her over 12 years, beginning when she was 14 or 15 years old, according to police and the complainant’s attorney. The now 26-year-old woman first filed the complaint with the Lansing […]
SE Michigan hospital at ‘breaking point’ in wake of skyrocketing omicron cases
Soaring omicron variant cases among Beaumont Health staff and patients have left the Southeast Michigan health care system at a “breaking point,” said hospital officials who, for the umpteenth time this pandemic, pleaded with the public Thursday to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “With each subsequent surge, I think the psychological toll gets greater and greater […]