A protest is planned in Virginia on Thursday, while a Texas rally, pushed by a host on the rightwing conspiracy theory website Infowars, is set to target the state capitol in Austin on Saturday.
On Wednesday, thousands of MI residents blocked traffic in Lansing, the state capital, while protesters in Kentucky disrupted Democratic Governor Andy Beshear's afternoon news briefing on the pandemic, chanting "We want to work!"
Demonstrations against coronavirus measures are spreading across the USA, with people holding rallies in North Carolina, Utah, Kentucky and OH in recent days.
The order met with resistance in the state over the past week.
"To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, protect the public health, and provide essential protections to vulnerable Michiganders, it is reasonable and necessary to impose limited and temporary restrictions on the use of places of public accommodation".
"Anytime somebody equates any current issue with an incident that was state-sponsored genocide, I think that is wrong", said Carolyn Normandin, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)'s MI office.
Whitmer is considered a top contender to be the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden when he takes on Trump in November's general election.
"It wasn't really about the stay-at-home order at all", Whitmer said.
Protesters say the severe economic restrictions are hurting citizens, but health officials warn lifting them could spread infection.
"There's no one, I think, more eager to start re-engaging sectors of our economy than I am".
In addition to yesterday's "Operation Gridlock" protest in Lansing, four MI residents are now taking their frustrations to a judge.
Whitmer told a news conference on Friday that next week, she will share the thought processes that go behind authorities' decision-making as to the strategy to reopen the state for business. "All I know is that I care about MI". And the government can't be there to walk them through that their entire life.
"It's better to be six feet apart right now than six feet under", she added. Rich Studley said she should recognize some parts of the state were not as hard hit and could reopen sooner.
A handful of stay-at-home opponents gathered outside the Virginia state capitol in Richmond on Thursday, but the largest protest so far was on Wednesday in MI, where the virus has killed 1,900 people, the third-highest death toll of any U.S. state.
"Yes, this needs to be taken seriously, but it's being taken advantage of", Clevenger said. "This isn't just here in MI, I'm in contact with other state public health directors who are seeing the same challenges, and quite frankly are also seeing testing go down".
State Republicans and pro-life activists have pressured Whitmer to suspend abortions during this crisis, but so far their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Both Democratic and Republican governors have resisted calls to abandon distancing too quickly. A procession of cars swarmed around the Republican-dominated statehouse in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, with messages written on windows or signs that said "stop killing our economy", "we need our church" and "time 2 work". "We will deal with every case as an individual situation and apply common sense in assessing the apparent violation", they continued. I don't feel it applies in this circumstance.
