DETROIT (WXYZ) — Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan says Detroit is behind the percentage of people in Oakland and Washtenaw Counties getting vaccinated and that could lead to restrictions from Gov. Whitmer.
“We could be in a situation by June where the wealthy communities in this state are all opened up because they're vaccinated, and the poorer communities are not. And that's a real concern,” he says.
The mayor says Oakland County has an adult vaccination rate of 48% while Macomb County is 39% and Detroit is only 25%.
The mayor says, “We could see a repeat of last spring where the governor was ordering shutdowns based on infection rates. We talk all the time and the governor’s orders were by region before.”
Mayor Duggan is urging more people living but also working in the city to get vaccinated saying,” We have restaurant workers in this town who have not been vaccinated. And I just think, you want to keep your job. You want to stay open.”
The mayor and Detroit Health Director Denise Fair showed the latest trends, how COVID cases started to grow outstate then moved through Michigan and the Thumb to Detroit.
The positivity rates are more than 1 out of 4 for people tested for COVID in Lapeer and St. Clair Counties, close and still rising in Macomb County and Detroit. They are asking Detroiters who have gotten the vaccine to urge their family and friends to also get it.
Mayor Duggan says they are working to open four permanent sites in the city for no appointment walk-in vaccinations sometime next week. More information to come.
There’s this warning for minorities to get vaccinated from Health Director Fair, “Black and brown communities are 2 to 3 times more likely to get COVID and to die from it.”