shut down plants starting march 19 with all plants closed by the end of the month. on march 30, ford announced it will convert its rawsonville components plant in ypsilanti to produce ge/airon corporation model a-e ventilators. it says it will produce 50,000 ventilators in the next 100 days. on april 1, 2020, general motors announced it will produce 30,000 v+pro critical care ventilators for the national stockpile. restaurants and bars on the morning of march 16, governor whitmer announced a temporary order to close all bars and restaurants in the state to sit-down service, effective at 3 pm the same evening until march 30. carry-out and delivery options were excluded from the order, although restaurants were urged to limit in-building carry-out services to five customers at a time. the order also included fitness centers, theaters, casinos, and other venues that encourage large assemblages of patrons, with several exceptions, such as office buildings. this order is expected to have significant economic impacts on businesses, and it prompted the michigan restaurant and lodging association to call for whitmer to submit paperwork to qualify michigan for the u.s. small business administration economic injury disaster loan program. the order also expands unemployment benefits to public health workers who become ill, people who need to take time off to care for children, and others, until april 14. domino's pizza, which is centered in the state, anticipated hiring up to 10,000 people to help meet increased demand for food delivery services due to the pandemic, while jet's pizza also prepared to hire "hundreds" of additional delivery drivers for the same reason. on june 8, lansing restaurants reopened for dine-in service for the first time since mid-may. on september 21, it was announced three bars in west michigan lost their liquor licenses temporarily after they allegedly failed to enforce coronavirus mandates. on january 22, 2021, at governor whitmer announced that starting on february 1, restaurants may re-open at 25% capacity with up to 100 people, tables must be six feet apart with no more than six people per table, and bars and restaurants must close by 10 p.m. contact information must also be collected from people for contact tracing purposes. since december 1, 21 restaurants have received covid-19 order violations by the michigan department of agriculture and rural development. six restaurants had their food license suspended – and five of the six suspensions are still in place. another 15 businesses were sent cease-and-desist orders, which is a lesser violation. restaurants, bars and retail stores were allowed to operate at 50% capacity starting march 5, 2021. on march 19, the owner of a pizza restaurant in holland was criminally charged with allowing indoor dining when it was banned, not enforcing mask rules, and ignoring capacity limits. unemployment and economic relief on march 19, the michigan strategic fund unanimously voted to approve a $20 million economic relief program meant to help struggling small businesses affected by the pandemic. the michigan unemployment insurance agency (uia) had processed over 1.7 million applications as of may 13, with 1.375 million people receiving benefits. the state has paid $5.62 billion in benefits since the state of emergency was declared two months prior. by june 19, uia disbursed $11.4 billion to two million people since the coronavirus pandemic reached the state. on august 21, the federal emergency management administration approved uia's application for funding that would provide an additional $300 per week payment to michigan residents receiving unemployment benefits. on october 14, the federal government approved unemployment benefits for 20 more weeks, with up to 59 weeks of benefits for some workers. on october 20, governor whitmer signed a bill approving six more weeks of state unemployment aid. impact on sports main article: impact of the covid-19 pandemic on sports baseball on march 12, major league baseball cancelled the remainder of spring training. four days later, they announced that the season would be postponed indefinitely, after the recommendations from the cdc to restrict events of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks, which affected michigan's team, the detroit tigers. on june 24, two members of the detroit tigers organization (later identified as pitcher daniel norris and a coach) tested positive for covid-19. norris was later cleared to join the opening day roster. on june 25, governor whitmer signed an executive order which allows professional sports to resume in the state. two days before, mlb commissioner rob manfred unilaterally implemented a 60-game season. players reported to training camps at their regular season home stadiums on july 1 in order to resume spring training, which included inter-squad games only, and prepare for a july 23 or 24 opening day (july 24 for the tigers). in an effort to slow the spread of the virus, teams only played their own division and the opposite league's corresponding geographical division, e.g. the tigers only played the american league central (40 games total) and national league central (20 games total). games were played behind closed doors, with artificial crowd noise played over loudspeakers. the tigers' august 3–6 series against the st. louis cardinals was postponed several times after 17 of the latter's members tested positive for covid-19, with two of the games later cancelled outright. on march 15, 2021, governor whitmer increased the maximum allowed capacity of sports stadiums from 375 people to 1,000, in time for the start of the 2021 detroit tigers season. on june 8, comerica park was allowed to return to operating at full seating capacity after april and may games this season were limited to 8,000 fans. basketball also on march 12, the national basketball association announced the season would be suspended for 30 days, which affected the detroit pistons. on march 14, detroit pistons power forward christian wood reportedly tested positive for covid-19. the pistons' season officially ended on june 5 when they failed to make the cut for a 22-team restart. in their 2020–21 season, the pistons' game against the denver nuggets on february 1 was postponed due to a positive test on a detroit player, as well as the february 16 game against the san antonio spurs due to an outbreak on the latter team. hockey in the national hockey league, the season was suspended for an indefinite amount of time starting march 12, which affected the detroit red wings. the red wings' season officially ended on may 27 when they failed to make a 24-team playoff tournament. the nhl's shortened 2020–21 season began on january 13. the regular season ran for 56 games per team, ending on may 8. football on july 27, national football league preseason games, which usually take place in august, were cancelled by nfl commissioner roger goodell due to the covid-19 pandemic, affecting the detroit lions. since july 30, the lions have placed eight players on the injury list after they tested positive for covid-19. one player's test, quarterback matthew stafford, was later revealed to be a false-positive and he was removed from the list on august 4. most games in the 2020 season were played behind closed doors, with crowds at some stadiums limited to friends and families of the players, coaches, and staff members. several members of the lions coaching staff, including interim head coach darrell bevell, sat out the december 26 game against the tampa bay buccaneers due to an outbreak. golf executive order 2020–42, signed april 9, closed golf courses in the state. on april 26, golf courses were allowed to re-open, provided golfers adhere to social distancing guidelines, and stay at least six feet away from people who do not live in their home. golf carts will not be allowed. on may 8, golf carts were allowed back on the michigan golf courses. the firekeepers casino hotel championship, an lpga symetra tour event, is one of the first pro sports events returning to michigan, scheduled for july 24–26 at the battle creek country club. the pga tour champions's the ally challenge was played at warwick hills golf and country club in grand blanc township from july 27–august 2, 2020. the gam junior invitational was played at forest akers west in east lansing at michigan state university from september 17-18, 2022. motorsports on april 6, indycar was forced to cancel the duel in detroit at belle isle park which were originally scheduled to be first two races of the season. the nascar cup series postponed the 2020 firekeepers casino 400 at michigan international speedway from june 5–7 to august 8. the nascar xfinity series lost their michigan date for 2020. college the ncaa also canceled all of its remaining winter tournaments for the 2019–2020 academic year, including the 2020 ncaa division i men's ice hockey tournament—whose national semi-finals and championship were scheduled to be hosted by detroit. all spring 2020 seasons were canceled as well. on june 1, governor whitmer signed an executive order that allows college teams to begin workouts and practice sessions for fall 2020 sports seasons. it allows "outdoor fitness classes, athletic practices, training sessions or games, provided that coaches, spectators and participants not from the same household maintain six feet of distance from one another at all times". on august 8, the mid-american conference (mac), which includes the central michigan chippewas, eastern michigan eagles, and western michigan broncos, canceled all of its fall 2020 sports seasons. on september 25, the mac reversed its previous decision on its 2020 football season, voting to play a six–game schedule which started on november 4. on august 11, the big ten conference, which includes the michigan wolverines and michigan state spartans, postponed their fall 2020 sports seasons. on september 16, however, it was announced the 2020 football season would start on october 24 with an eight-game schedule. on august 12, the great lakes intercollegiate athletic conference, which is made up mostly of schools in michigan, postponed its fall 2020 and winter 2021 sports seasons. in the fall of 2020, the pandemic caused both the michigan wolverines football and michigan state spartans football teams to cancel their games against the maryland terrapins football team due to covid-19 outbreaks. the michigan football team's game against their arch-rival, the ohio state buckeyes, as well as their game against the iowa hawkeyes, were also canceled after an increasing number of michigan players and staff members became infected. on january 23, 2021, the university of michigan (u of m) shut down all sports for two weeks after the new more infectious uk variant of covid-19 was discovered in five individuals with ties to the school. as of april 23, 2021, 342 u of m student-athletes and 59 coaches and staff members have tested positive for covid-19. high school at the high school level, the michigan high school athletic association canceled the remainder of the winter 2019–20 seasons and all of the spring 2020 seasons on april 3, 2020. on july 17, mhsaa announced all fall sports will resume as scheduled for the 2020–21 school year with practices starting august 10 for football and august 12 for other sports. however, on july 30, they announced all preseason scrimmages would be canceled and medium and high-risk sports (soccer, volleyball and football) could start practice but a final decision on whether games would be allowed might not be made until august 20. the mhsaa postponed the football season until spring 2021. on august 20, the mhsaa announced it will be allowing soccer, volleyball and swimming to start fall competition in michigan's region 6 and 8 in northern michigan and the upper peninsula. regions 1-5 and 7 are still pending due to the phases they are in according to the governor's executive orders on the pandemic. girls' golf, boys' tennis and cross country in both peninsulas are able to start immediately because they are not contact sports. on september 3, the mhsaa approved the return of all fall 2020 sports. on november 15, governor whitmer announced the mdhhs has ordered all high school sports to suspend activities for three weeks, effective november 18. critical responses protests on april 15, a convoy of thousands of motorists drove from all over the state to protest the extension of governor gretchen whitmer's stay-at-home order. the protest, known now as operation gridlock, involved clogging the streets surrounding on near the michigan state capitol, including the capitol loop, with their vehicles, drawing