Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday announced plans to take “some of the economic pressure off” the state by letting thousands of Minnesotans return to work as soon as Monday.
While his stay-at-home order is scheduled to remain in place until May 4, and the governor extended distance learning until the end of the school year, Walz laid out an approach to loosening restrictions on Minnesota businesses almost immediately.
Starting Monday, about 20,000 businesses employing between 80,000 and 100,000 in manufacturing, industrial and office settings will have the chance to reopen.
Currently, about 2.6 million people are working, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).
Walz said that while the state’s primary goal is to keep Minnesotans safe and to flatten the curve on COVID-19 infections, it’s also important to improve their quality of life.
“It is very difficult to be happy when you’re afraid of losing your business,” he said. “It is very difficult to be happy when you can’t pay the rent.”
The loosened restrictions are detailed in executive order 20-40, which goes into effect Monday. It does not require owners of eligible businesses to open and does not include customer-facing retail businesses. It also requires businesses to meet a number of conditions, including creating a COVID-19 “Preparedness Plan” and conducting health screenings of employees each day at arrival.
Those requirements apply only to businesses reopening next week, said DEED Commissioner Steve Grove.
To explain where the state stands regarding restrictions, Walz’s team is using the image of a dial, with critical services on the left of the dial and shopping malls all the way to the right. The sectors opening Monday are the next level from critical services and Walz said the state is a long way from large, unpredictable gatherings such as the State Fair or baseball games.
“The things that we love so much are going to be hard to do,” he said.
Walz also emphasized that until a vaccine is developed, Minnesotans will have to learn to live with COVID-19. “We’re slowing the spread; we have to build immunity,” he said. “We’re not going to eliminate this thing.”
Ramped up testing, for which the state announced plans on Wednesday, will play a large role in further loosening restrictions, particularly as it pertains to the state’s health care system. If testing reveals it will soon be overwhelmed, the governor said, “We may have to move that dial back a bit.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends states hold off on opening small retail until it records 14 consecutive days of decreasing infections counts.
Asked what he would tell small retailers eager to reopen, Walz said, “I would tell them to stick with us on this, continue to talk to us; we believe we can create a unique model. We’re using CDC guidelines but are also trying to create a template unique to Minnesota.”
DEED will hold a webinar on Friday, from 11:30 a.m. to noon, with presenters who will talk through the process of returning workers. It’s accessible at mn.gov/deed/newscenter/covid/safework/webinar/.
![By SETH BORENSTEIN (AP Science Writer) Climate change will reduce future global income by about 19% in the next 25 years compared to a fictional world that’s not warming, with the poorest areas and those least responsible for heating the atmosphere taking the biggest monetary hit, a new study said. Climate change’s economic bite in […]](https://www.twincities.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Climate_Income_Reduction_00249.jpg?w=525 "By SETH BORENSTEIN (AP Science Writer) Climate change will reduce future global income by about 19% in the next 25 years compared to a fictional world that’s not warming, with the poorest areas and those least responsible for heating the atmosphere taking the biggest monetary hit, a new study said. Climate change’s economic bite in […]")
