Governor Restricts Visitor Access To Medical Care Facilities

Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an Executive Order Friday night to impose temporary restrictions on entry into health care facilities, residential care facilities, congregate care facilities, and juvenile justice facilities.

Beginning Saturday at 9:00am all health care facilities, residential care facilities, congregate care facilities, and juvenile justice facilities must prohibit any visitors that are not necessary for medical care, support of activities of daily living like bathing or eating, or that are not visiting under exigent circumstances. Additionally, beginning as soon as possible but no later than Monday, at 9:00am, these facilities must assess for COVID-19 symptoms and risk factors for all individuals not under their care who are seeking entry into their facilities. The facilities must deny entry to any individual with these symptoms or risk factors. These restrictions will remain in place until April 5. During that time, the order encourages the affected facilities to use electronic communication platforms to facilitate visitations with individuals under their care.

“We are taking every measure we can to mitigate the spread of coronavirus and protect Michigan families,” said Governor Whitmer. “This is a hard time for families, and we will continue to put their health and safety first when making these decisions. During this crisis, we must ensure that state meetings remain open and accessible to the public. I also want to remind everyone to continue doing everything they can at an individual level to protect themselves and their families, like washing their hands and practicing social distancing. We will get through this together.”

If you think you have been exposed to COVID-19, call your health care provider. If you do not have a health care provider, call the nearest hospital.

Information around this outbreak is changing rapidly. The latest information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus.