A health chief in Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration ventured outside the state despite local guidance to avoid travel and a spike in COVID-19 cases.
Elizabeth Hertel, the director of Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services, traveled to Gulf Shores, Alabama, last week with her immediate family, according to Michigan Information and Research Service News. The report did not specify why Hertel was in the region but noted that she was regularly updated on Michigan’s growing COVID-19 case numbers and was available to issue any new public health orders as needed.
Whitmer dismissed a question about Hertel’s trip as a “partisan hit job.”
“I’m not going to get distracted by partisan hit jobs on my team. There have never been travel restrictions in Michigan. There just haven’t been,” she said during a news conference on Wednesday. “What directors do on their personal time is their business, so long as they are safe, which is what we’re asking everyone in this state do to: Get vaccinated, mask up.”
TOP AIDE TO MICHIGAN GOVERNOR VISITED FLORIDA BEACH DESPITE WARNINGS AGAINST TRAVEL
Hertel is the second person in Whitmer’s administration found to have traveled out of state in recent weeks as the state deals with a surge in COVID-19 cases. Tricia Foster, the governor’s chief operating officer, posted pictures to her Facebook page that appeared to show the aide, her teenage daughter, and the daughter’s friends on the beach in Florida.
“A good day,” Foster wrote in the caption of photos reportedly taken last week in Siesta Key.
Bobby Leddy, Whitmer’s press secretary, defended Foster’s travel, saying she “is fully recovered from COVID and fully vaccinated,” which would make domestic travel permissible under current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Guidelines issued by Hertel’s department on April 5 warn would-be travelers that “travel increases your chance of spreading and getting COVID-19.”
“We recommend that you do not travel at this time,” says the Michigan DHHS travel advisory, which remains in effect. “Delay travel and stay home to protect yourself and others from COVID-19.”
Their travel took place as there has been a spike in coronavirus cases in Michigan, reportedly driven by the U.K. variant, that caused Whitmer to tighten restrictions and call on residents to reduce travel. On April 2, Whitmer released guidelines urging spring breakers to get tested for COVID-19 upon returning to Michigan.
“Michiganders should get tested one to three days before travel,” Hertel said. “Do not travel if you test positive. Check travel restrictions before leaving, especially information about the spread of new variants of COVID-19 where you intend on visiting.”
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky argued for tougher restrictions, saying the situation is so dire that lockdowns should be reimposed.
“When you have an acute situation, [an] extraordinary number of cases, like we have in Michigan, the answer is not necessarily to give vaccine,” she said during a COVID-19 response briefing on Monday. “In fact, we know that the vaccine will have a delayed response. The answer to that is to really close things down, to go back to our basics, to go back to where we were last spring, last summer.”
Walensky urged Michigan to “flatten the curve” by decreasing human contact and shutting things down.
In response to the surge, Whitmer extended COVID-19 Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Act emergency business place rules, a decision that was met with disappointment from the state’s business community. Michigan Chamber President and CEO Rich Studley said he was “extremely disappointed” by the news after Whitmer invited Michigan chamber members to participate in a workgroup discussing the extension.
“It’s pretty obvious the administration wasn’t sincere about listening to the concerns of employers,” he said, noting office outbreaks are only the sixth-highest source of viral transmission.
Whitmer defended the extension as a necessary public health provision.
“At this juncture, with our high positivity numbers, it’s really important that we extend for another six months so that we have the ability to work through what these protocols look like and get people back into the workplace when it’s safe to do so with the right protocols,” she said.
The governor attributed the state’s recent surge in cases to variants and noncompliance rather than policy at the state level.
“We’re having a lot of conversations about what makes sense to contribute to bringing down the spread, but here’s what we know: National experts with whom we consult have said you don’t have a policy problem. Michigan still has some of the strongest protocols in place. [We have] capacity restrictions, [and] we’ve got a mask mandate,” she said during a virtual press conference on Wednesday.
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Michigan has recorded 841,234 cases of COVID-19, and 17,657 deaths have been attributed to the disease, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.
A representative for Michigan’s DHHS did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
