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4:13 PM, Feb 27, 2020

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State lifts mask mandate after CDC eases guidance on Thursday

Posted at 5:28 AM, May 14, 2021
and last updated 2021-05-14 05:28:09-04

(WXYZ) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lifted the mask mandate for fully vaccinated people on Friday, just one day after the CDC eased its guidance.

Related: Gov. Whitmer drops mask mandate in Michigan for fully vaccinated people

Michigan was one of 25 states that still had a mask mandate.

The state has a goal of 70% vaccinated before the governor lifts the mask mandate and all other restrictions in the MI Vacc to Normal Plan. We're currently at just over 55%, meaning more than a million Michiganders would still need at least one dose.

Under the latest order, fully vaccinated Michiganders will not have to wear a mask indoors or outdoors.

"You know there is a good chance that we might not get there, the numbers are slowing down a lot," Dr. Matthew Sims, the director of infectious disease research at Beaumont Hospital, said.

Sims said there's still a lot of hesitancy out there. That hesitancy could be met with an incentive from the CDC.

The new guidelines allow states to drop the mask mandates for fully vaccinated people.

If Michigan can average 100,000 first doses a week moving forward, it would take 3 1/2 months for all measures to be lifted, including masks, placing us sometime in September.

"COVID is probably never going away fully, but the vaccine should be able to bring us to where it's more like the flu," Sims said.

Once we reach that 70%, an establishment verifying who's fully vaccinated is another issue, as Michigan lawmakers say they would not push for a vaccine passport.

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