In Minnesota, which continues to experience a surge of COVID-19 deaths and positive cases since overtaking WI two weeks ago, Gov. Tim Walz, loosened stay-at-home rules for the first time.
Gov. Tim Walz said Wednesday that he will allow stores to reopen and let Minnesotans leave the house more, while leaving in place for now restrictions for bars, restaurants, theaters, hair salons and other businesses with in-person services.
The announcement, delivered in a livestreamed address to Minnesotans Wednesday evening, means many small businesses and retailers can open their doors to customers on Monday, as long as they have a plan to keep employees and customers safe with social distancing.
Bars, restaurants, barbershops and salons could open as early as June 1 if they meet safe opening plans devised later this month by state health officials.
“The stay-at-home order is expiring and the dials are turning, but that doesn’t mean we are carefree and can return to the way things were,” Walz said. “It means we have to stay safe, take care, care for our own health and care for our neighbor.”
It’s a significant step in the governor’s response to the virus, loosening a stay-at-home order after nearly two months of restrictions meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But it’s not a wholesale reopening of the state.
Also: Anyone who can work from home must, and gatherings (including at places of worship) must not exceed 10 people. Too early to see how this more-than-loosening order will fare, or how the state’s citizens respond to it. My guess is: there will be the typical urban-rural political divide that has come to define electoral politics in this state since the turn of this century.
