An executive order signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer expands what many healthcare professionals are allowed to do in response to Michigan's growing number of COVID-19 cases.
The order relaxed some rules to allow specialists, nurses, and physician assistants to take on more responsibilities to help address the growing shortage of health care workers.
Thad Gormus is with the Michigan Academy of Physicians Assistants. He said it’s impossible to know the need as COVID-19 cases continue to grow.
“Because, first of all, how many sick residents, how many patients are there going to be? We don’t know that yet. The second part is how many health care providers are going to become sick?”
Governor Whitmer also vetoed eighty million dollars in budget line-items from bills sent to her by the Legislature. Republican leaders agreed with the vetoes to free up money to help fund the state’s coronavirus response.