The state government is lifting its mask and indoor gathering restrictions on June 22nd, just over a week earlier than planned.
The reasons for this are vaccinations and low case rates.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer's administration made the surprise announcement Thursday, citing some of the lowest COVID case rates the state has seen since the pandemic began. More than 60-percent of Michiganders over 16 have also received at least one dose of a vaccine, further incentivising the change.
State health department director Elizabeth Hertel says that the state is in a "good position".
"Our case rates have been going down for the last 8 weeks, steadily," Hertel said. "Our vaccination rates are increasing steadily. And our hospitalizations have dropped significantly."
The hope in the administration is it's enough to keep the virus relatively contained to occasional outbreaks, rather than mass surges.
"We'll continue to focus our time on the administration of the vaccine," Hertel said. "And of course we're all watching the variants and what's happening in the rest of the world".
Hertel says that's her biggest concern: that if the virus can keep circulating long enough, a variant could evolve that doesn't respond to the vaccines, which includes the Delta variant first found in India.
