Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Wednesday she will extend an executive order protecting state residents from water shutoffs through the end of the year.

In addition to the order, Whitmer signed a bill last week that will allocate $25 million to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to reimburse water utilities that forgive customer water debts incurred during the Covid-19 emergency.

“As Michigan families grapple with the impacts of Covid-19 on public health and our economy, our administration is taking proactive steps to ensure that no one has to worry about having access to clean drinking water or losing power during this unprecedented crisis,” Whitmer said in a statement.

The initial order, signed into effect in late March, required utilities to reconnect water service to homes that had been disconnected because they were late in paying their bills.

Along with the initial order, the state established a $2 million grant program to assist utilities with the cost of restoring water. Some 2,477 residents had their water restored.

Michigan has just under 75,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 11,805 of them in Detroit. The Detroit Water Department reported 127,500 water shutoffs for residents from 2014 to the end of 2019.

Amid ongoing conflict and the Covid-19 pandemic, torrential rainfall and subsequent flooding have displaced thousands in Yemen. Many roads are inaccessible, water supplies are polluted, and basic amenities have been cut, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The country’s infrastructure and health systems are already overwhelmed. On top of that, floods will open the door to waterborne diseases such as cholera, which has sickened more than 2.2 million people in Yemen in an outbreak that began in October 2016.

Flooding and displacement also increase the risk of Covid-19 in a country where the death rate from the disease is five times higher than the global average. An estimated 9,146 people were impacted by flooding in Raymah province. In camps hosting internally displaced people, floods affected at least 4,764 families.

The ICRC and Yemen Red Crescent Society have been working to provide support by distributing cleaning and personal hygiene items and providing health services and medicines. The two groups have aided an estimated 130,000 people impacted by the floods.

The House on Wednesday approved new legislation to fund the replacement of the nation’s estimated 10 million lead water lines.

The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, authorizes $4.5 billion dollars a year over the next five years to remove lead service lines. The amendment is part of the Moving Forward Act, a $1.5 trillion infrastructure and transportation package.

Some 5.5 million American residents received water from systems that exceeded the EPA’s lead action level from 2015 to 2018, a Natural Resources Defense Council report found. Detroit alone has at least 125,000 lead service lines. The NRDC notes the importance of clean drinking water during the Covid-19 crisis, and the overlap between cities with high levels of lead-contaminated water and those most affected by the pandemic this spring.

Over 100 local and national environmental and justice organizations signed a letter in support of the Tlaib amendment. “Now, more than ever, families should not have to worry about whether their drinking water is harming their health,” the Environmental Defense Fund said in a statement.

The bill faces a tough path forward, however. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, called the bill “pointless political theater,” while the White House said it would issue a veto.

More than 4 million people in Bangladesh in areas affected by the coronavirus pandemic are at risk of being overwhelmed by high water this week, according to flood forecasts from global and national monitoring agencies. There is a fifty percent chance the flood will submerge several districts in the country for at least three days.

Because the forecasts exceeded certain thresholds, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, began evacuating some 16,500 people from the three highest-risk districts.

IFRC’s tapped 230,000 Swiss Francs ($240,000) from its disaster relief fund to help protect people and property and provide medical aid and cash grants. Due to Covid-19, the federation distributed face masks and hand sanitizers to minimize the chance of infection.

“The compounding effects of COVID-19 and the floods could be devastating,” said Azmat Ulla, the IFRC head in Bangladesh. “And this funding is crucial to reducing the impact as much as possible.”

The risk of contracting Covid-19 from both wastewater and recreational water is low, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Studies conducted in multiple countries in recent months have detected the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, in treated and untreated wastewater, but to this date there has been no evidence of a person contracting the virus through wastewater or swimming areas.

Wastewater that has been treated for contaminants and then returned to the environment has the least risk. A study conducted in France discovered a decreased level of the virus after the water had been properly treated. Earlier studies dealing with coronaviruses, to which SARS-CoV-2 is similar, have also noted a loss in potency after the virus moves through a proper treatment system.

More research must be done to better understand the relationship, but according to the Water Environment Federation and the World Health Organization, wastewater filtered for recycled use should mostly eliminate the virus before being discharged to rivers, lakes, and oceans. Even if any active viruses make their way to recreational water, they would not survive very long at all.