On March 23 the Michigan governor mandated a stay at home order to begin effective on March 24. All non-essential business was supposed to be shut down. My employer apparently has some defense contracts, that makes them essential, and by extension every business we deal with is also essential. There has been absolutely no scaling back or scaling down of any kind, even on the non defense contract stuff. Apparently if you can deem your business as essential then you've discovered a loophole to continue operating at 100% capacity. This appears to be a problem state wide with many business flagrantly disregarding the order to stay open: tree trimming and landscaping, cell phone retailers, the entirety of home improvement stores (I understand this is essential, but is it essential to keep selling paint and other stuff that is clearly not essential?).
Our work implemented a check in procedure before an employee is supposed to enter any building on site. Basically they ask if you have symptoms, or been in contact with anyone that has, or if you've been on a airplane in the last 14 days.
I've begun wearing a homemade t-shirt mask to cover my face on recommendation from the CDC. Most other people are not. I asked management about implementing a site wide requirement for masks given the new evidence to suggest it can reduce transmission and the fact that CDC is recommending it, but I've gotten no response. In the meantime I have gotten multiple responses about some people, including me, not completing the check in procedure. My response was that they were stationed at the door for several days, but the last 3 days have not been stationed. I was specifically told all workers in building 4 are to check in at that door. I don't feel like walking all over the plant trying to find the person responsible and "checking myself in", so I asked if we could move the check in to a virtual check in instead of a face-to-face check in that potentially exposes us all. No, we must go to the will call area and check in face to face. I really don't understand why the check in can't be virtual and must be face-to-face since the person checking us in is just a regular employee with no medical training. What advantage does the face-to-face encounter offer if I am answering the exact same questions? I guess the idea is that you can easily lie over email, but it will be harder to hide your coughing or symptoms during a face-to-face meeting, but it's also going to be hard to hide your symptoms regardless - people are going to notice someone being sick at work. Mostly I think it's a "cover your ass" policy so that when people start getting sick they can point to a pile of paperwork and say "we did the check in as required by the county orders".
As of yesterday Detroit had 5,023 confirmed cases and 193 deaths. Detroit city and Wayne county (the county Detroit is in) are counted separately; Wayne county had 3,247 cases and 153 deaths. The adjacent Oakland county (where I live) had 3,380 cases and 185 deaths. Those 3 regions have the highest case and death load in all of michigan, followed by Macomb county (which borders both of the other counties, and I live less than 1 mile from).
