COVID-19 is on the rise in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, and around Michigan. While there are not currently stay at home orders,t here are still mask requirements, gathering limits, and other
COVID-19 Updates
Current Health Orders
- Masks – There’s a lot of legal jargon, but masks are required at most public locations indoors and outdoors when you can’t maintain 6′ of separation. (And yes, businesses can refuse you entry without a mask if they provide alternate service options)
- Gatherings
- Residential – Masks Encouraged
- Indoors: 10 or less
- Outdoors: 100 or less outdoors – 25 in the Cities of Ann Arbor & Ypsilanti
- Non-Residential – Masks Required
- Indoors
- Without Fixed Seating: 50 or less and 20 people/1000 sq ft in a room
- With Fixed Seating: 20% or less of seating capacity
- Outdoor
- Without Fixed Seating: 1000 people or less and a max of 30 people/1000 sq ft
- With Fixed Seating: 1000 people or less and a max of 30% of seating capacity
- Indoors
- Residential – Masks Encouraged
- Contact Tracing – Open venues need to collect contact information to aid in contract tracing if a case is reported.
- Information collection – Name, Phone Number, Date & Time of Visit
- Required by Personal Care Services including: Barber shops, cosmetology services, body art, tanning, massage, and others,
- Required by: Recreational & Entertainment venues: Gyms, Sports & exercise facilities, cinemas, concert halls, performance venues, stadiums, theaters, amusement parks, arcades, bingo halls, and other places of public amusement
- Required by In Home Services: Cleaners, Repair persons, painters, etc.
- Required for: Dine-In Food Service
With cases growing exponentially in Michigan including increased hospitalizations, I expect more restrictions to be added soon.
Ann Arbor Resources
Food
Food is one of the essential resources that you can leave home for. Whether it is grocery shopping, curbside pickup (or making food deliveries), and picking up school lunch deliveries.
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School Meal Resources
Local school districts and charter schools are offering pickups of lunch and breakfasts.
Restaurants – Curbside, Delivery, & Dine-In
Restaurants are allowed to offer indoor and outdoor dining and decreased capacity and with spacing restrictions, As of November 2, they also ned to gather contact information for customers. Many restaurants are continuing to operate with only pickup/delivery options. Personally, my family will not eat at a restaurant (indoors or outdoors). Even when we pickup, we select locations that don’t involve us entering a dining area (indoor or outdoor). We have gotten delivery a few times when restaurants don’t meet our criteria.
A few restaurants we have been happy with:
- Everest Sherpa (Curbside Service)
- Buddy’s Pizza (Curbside service even though they offer dine-in)
- Tup Tim (Curbside Service)
- Ma Lou’s (Indoor Pickup, no dine in)
- Bellflower (Indoor ordering & pickup, dine in is a separate area)
- Beezy’s (curbside service)
Grocery Shopping
During the Stay at Home Order, grocery stores cut their hours, started offering special shopping hours for the vulnerable, and health care workers. While the stay at home order is lifted, many grocery stores are still offering shortened hours. They are also continuing to offer special shopping hours for seniors and those that are high risk. Unfortunately, many of their websites are not updated to reflect these senior hours. I know that Meijer offers senior shopping hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. Kroger offers them on Busch’s offers early shoping hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Stay at Home Order, grocery shopping is one of the reasons that you can leave home. However, many grocery stores have shortened their hours. Some have added special hours for seniors, the immuno-compromised, and health-care and service workers. Check out our complete list of Grocery Hours plus options for pickup and delivery and special hours for vulnerable populations.
Other Stores
All stores are allowed to be open noww ith limited capacity However, some are continuing to operate purely in a curbside model.
Medical Services
Medical services like doctors offices, urgent cares, and pharmacies are still open. Many offices have special procedures during COVID-19 for segregating patients. Some offices are providing telehealth visits particularly in the mental health fields.
Be sure to check with your provider for updates on hours, procedures, and visit locations.
Pharmacies are still open, but may be operating on alternate hours like grocery stores.
For the fall semester there are many different approaches to learning throughout the county. With cases rising quickly throughout the state and the possibility of more peaks after Thanksgiving and winter holidays, a return to school closures across the state is certainly a possibility.
Ann Arbor Public Schools remains fully virtual. The district has laid out science-based metrics on when school can reopen.
Ypsilanti Community Schools remains in a mostly virtual mode. Select students who are identified as most at risk are receiving some in-person learning.
Lincoln Consolidated Schools has returned their elementary students in a hybrid mode. Their secondary students started back the week of November 2. And Lincoln Middle School is closed on November 6 after a case was identified.
Saline and Dexter are in a hybrid mode.
Whitmore Lake is offering a full in-person environment.
Many private schools are offering in person classes
Governmental Offices
Local governmental offices have reopened on a limited basis. I live in Pittsfield Township and they are open by appointment for certain matters (masks required). They City of Ann Arbor has also reopened (masks required), but continues to offer many services virtually.
Libraries
Libraries are allowed to resume operations. However, many of the buildings are still closed with limited services provided.
Ann Arbor District Library’s buildings are only open for contactless lobby pickup (and returns). We love their easy pickup service. We request an item online for a location, schedule a day for pickup when it is ready, and enter the lobby to pick it up saying hi to the staff member monitoring by video feed. Remembering to wear our mask for pickup. They are also offering online programming.
Ypsilanti District Library buildings are closed. They are offering curbside service at Whittaker Rd & Michigan Ave.
Dexter District Library started limited inside browsing on October 12. Masks are required, visitors are asked to stay for less than 30 minutes, study furniture has been removed, computers are available and they are making laptops available for short-term use outside. Meeting rooms are unavailable. Toys, puzzles, and games have been removed from general use areas. Programming will remain virtual.
Milan Public Library is only offering curbside pickup.
