Mayor Duggan recommends wearing masks in public amid pandemic

DETROIT (FOX 2) - One hundred-sixteen Detroiters have died from COVID-19 through Thursday.

At his daily briefing on Friday, Mayor Mike Duggan said some people in the Motor City aren't taking the stay at home order seriously.

"If you are in a group of five or six people it is almost a mathematic certainty that one of the people in that group has COVID-19."

Now, the Detroit Police Department is ramping up enforcement, paying special attention to city parks. DPD will be looking for people in large groups, ready to write tickets with fines up to a thousand dollars. Even jail time is a possibility.

"We are asking for the community to serve as our eyes and ears," said James White, assistant Detroit police chief. "This temporary sacrifice can lead to a fantastic summer in Detroit when we are past this. Until then, we must stay inside, we must keep that separation." 

Meanwhile more police officers have been cleared to go back to work after getting the new rapid 15-minute COVID-19 test.

The drive-thru COVID-19 testing center at the State Fairgrounds is now testing 700 people a day. Starting on Monday the city will be providing $2 rides to the testing center at Woodward and Eight Mile.

Mayor Duggan says if don't you have $ 2, you won't be turned away.

"We want every single Detroiter regardless of income, regardless of your neighborhood, if you have symptoms we are going to make sure you have access to these tests."

And if you're going out in public, you are being urged to wear some sort of mask.

"I don't know if we can bend the curve in Detroit," Duggan said. "They failed to do it in New York and the loss of life is almost unimaginable.”