The Berrien County Sheriff’s Department, the Berrien County Health Department, and Spectrum Health Lakeland have issued a statement to answer some of the questions they’ve been getting about the stay at home order issued by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The statement is below:
In response to numerous questions of who qualifies for an exemption under Executive Order No. 2020-21 we are encouraging individuals to reference www.cisa.gov for assistance in determining Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce.
Under the Executive Order No. 2020-21:
Section No.4: No person or entity shall operate a business or conduct operations that require workers to leave their homes or places of residence except to the extent that those workers are necessary to sustain or protect life or to conduct minimum basic operations.
- For purposes of this order, workers who are necessary to sustain or protect life are defined as “critical infrastructure workers,” as described in sections 8 and 9.
Employees should be communicating with their employer who is responsible for determining if they are designated as a Critical Infrastructure Employer under this Executive Order No. 2020-21.
If employers need assistance in determining if their worker or the job/service they are considering is indeed essential, the MI Attorney General’s Office advised to review the information at www.cisa.gov.
We are asking the public to refrain from contacting Berrien County Public Safety Dispatch (911) and the Berrien County Health Department. We do not want to overwhelm these important services on questions that are answered and available in the above references.
The County of Berrien will not render individual rulings or opinions on which organizations or jobs, meetings, or elements of organizational operations are considered “essential” or not. The EO 2020-21 was broadly constructed intentionally from the Governor. In consulting the Governor’s Office we were advised to direct individuals to www.cisa.gov
