4-30-2020 COVID-19 Update from MN Governor Tim Walz and MDH

MN Governor Walz and the Minnesota Department of Health COVID-19 Update for 4-30-2020

TODAY: Governor Walz to Provide Update on Minnesota’s Next Steps to Combat COVID-19

On Thursday, April 30, 2020, Governor Tim Walz will provide an update on the Stay at Home Order and the State of Minnesota’s response to COVID-19.

The following is a summary of what was discussed during the media briefing.

Update from Governor Walz:

• Thank you to Minnesotans who responded with 130,000 masks delivered to fire departments across the state 
• It’s time to assess where we’re at to see what’s worked
• Today there’s a lot of positives to talk about in MN
• COVID-19 Response in MN
  • By staying home, Minnesotans have saved lives and bought critical time
  • We have built hospital capacity and finalized a lease on an alternate care site to make sure that all Minnesotans who need care can receive it. 
  • We are working to acquire more personal protective equipment to protect our frontline workers
  • We announced a landmark testing strategy that will allow us to test every symptomatic Minnesotan
• A breakthrough in testing capacity
  • In partnership with the state’s health care delivery systems, the Mayo Clinic, and the U of M, we are ramping up efforts to provide statewide for COVID-19. 
    • establishing the capacity to deliver 2,000 molecular and 15,000 serology tests per day. This is one of the most aggressive testing initiatives in the US.
    • Just yesterday, we tested the most Minnesotans in a single say since we saw our first case: 3,279 tests were completed — roughly 400 more than our previous record
  • We unveiled a new website to help Minnesotans determine if they need testing and find a testing location within their community
    • this testing collaborative now includes 177 clinics and health care facilities across the state
    • https://mn.gov/covid19/
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  • We can’t eliminate COVID-19 without a vaccine, but this graph shows what Minnesotans have done by staying at home and social distancing, and by making good decisions. 
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• Objectives for moving forward
  • Minnesotans living healthy, safe and happy lives
  • Slow spread and slowly build immunity, realizing elimination is impossible
  • Protect those working on the front lines by increasing access to PPE
  • ensure our health system can care for all of those who require treatment for COVID and other conditions 
  • Strategically get more Minnesotans back to work
  • Safely and slowly resume in-person contacts and other activities that are critical for our well-being
• Factors to consider when loosening restrictions:
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• Those who are saying we should all open up businesses tomorrow, they are wrong.
• Plans for Moving Minnesota forward:
  • Extend the Stay Home and Bars, Restaurants and Public Accommodations Executive Orders until Monday, May 18
  • Allow additional retail businesses to reopen operations for curbside pick-ups and delivery — putting up to 30,000 Minnesotans back to work
• Curbside pickup and delivery
  • All customer-facing retail establishments are eligible for curbside delivery/pickup, starting next Monday
  • Every business must develop and post a plan for how to do so; template available online
  • Online payment should be used in every possible scenario
  • Employees and customers should wear masks and protective equipment 
  • In curbside pick-up scenarios, social distancing guidelines apply. Don’t leave your vehicle if possible.
  • In delivery scenarios, items should be deposited outside a customer’s residence
• Safely adjusting the dials:
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• Next Steps:
  • We are looking to revise the current ban on elective surgery. We will continue working with hospitals and other health care professionals on how to modify the order and will have an announcement in the coming days.
  • If we keep making good progress on testing, social distancing, and some of the other factors we discussed previously, we will continue turning the dial.
  • We will continue to have ongoing industry-specific consultations with the business and labor community.
  • As a next step, this includes making plans to safely reopen other non-critical customer-facing settings.
• COVID-19 response milestones:
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• Things will be difficult for quite some time
  • Even as we re-open more, life won’t look the same for a while. And we will be prepared to dial back if needed.
  • As we turn the dial, there are certain practices that we’ll continue for some time, including:
    • teleworking whenever possible
    • Wearing face masks in public
    • Symptom screening and temperature checks
    • Maintaining physical distance from each other
    • Forgoing things that we love, such as large sporting events or cultural gatherings, until we can be sure they can be done safely.
• Minnesotans, continue what you’re doing with the social distancing. 

Update from Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm:

• Global update, over 3.2 million cases around the world, 228,000 deaths
• In the US, over 1 million cases and 61,000 deaths  
• In MN, 5,136 total cases of COVID-19 and 343 deaths
• 2,172 patients released from isolation
• 365 patients in the hospital, 130 of them in intensive care
• Almost 3,300 tests performed yesterday

Update from Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove:

• More on the curbside pick-up and delivery, Executive Order 20-48
• This guidance was not developed alone inside of a government. It’s the result of countless meetings and conversations with chambers of commerce, retail associations, business leaders and labor leaders around the state. It’s important that we get these guidance documents right.
• This move to turn that dial toward curbside pick-up and delivery, is consistent with the guidance of both the National Retail Federation and the Minnesota Retailers Association. 
• They both recommend starting in phases, to go to this curbside delivery space first, and then move to fully opening up.
• The importance of phases is it gets businesses acclimated to this new way of doing business, it gets customers acclimated to the physical environment of coming into a store or coming into a business with protective equipment, so that when we do turn the dial a little bit further, there’s growth there. 
• We know that the progress we’ve made over the last month has been disproportionately on the backs of small businesses in our state. It’s small businesses that have most often had to close.
• It’s hard enough to operate a small business when times are good. But during a global pandemic, when you have to pause your operations to keep a state safe, that’s devastatingly difficult.
• We’re grateful that small businesses have been willing to put themselves on pause for now 
• We know that when a small business looks at a big box store that’s able to stay open because they sell critical items that society needs, as per that Dept. of Homeland Security guidance, that seems a little unfair. And I think it’s important now that we take this step, both to begin to open up our economy, and to get those businesses running again.
• We think today’s announcement will help 30,000 Minnesotans get back to work
• Announcement involves any retail store or business that sells, rents or maintains and repairs goods that can reasonably be picked up outside by a customer without having to enter that business, and with limited interaction between the worker and the customer.
• This includes household goods rentals, maintenance services, repair services, and pet grooming, which are all included in this order.  
• Salons and barber shops are allowed to open up the retail portion of their business, but they can’t perform haircuts or other similar services to customers.
• We’re asking businesses to make a plan for your workers and customers so everyone knows what to do.
• Employers can get more guidance at https://mn.gov/deed/newscenter/covid/safework/
• Asking every business to begin doing health screenings to identify symptoms and make sure employees are safe. This is optional.
• Target has procured tens of thousands of infrared thermometers they’re selling at wholesale cost.
• Workers should wear masks and gloves as often as possible.
• If employers can do contactless payment (no exchange of cash), that would be preferred.
• What’s next? Detailed conversations and consultations with our business community. 
• Since March 16, we’re up to 584,431 applications for unemployment insurance. Many of the cases we’re dealing with now are independent contractors and the self-employed.

Update from Bruce Nustad, President MN Retailers Association:

• MN has about 69,000 retailers 
• It’s no secret that retail has been hit hard by COVID-19
• Worked with governor and his staff on how to balance the public health element with the economic health element.   
• The curbside pickup and delivery option is an important step for retailers. There are probably between 10,000 to 15,000 retailers today that aren’t able to conduct business that will be picked up by this order. 
• This is not a full solution, but this is a step, and quite frankly for retail, this is a really important step.
• We’re working toward a reopening of stores “this is your final game in the playoffs and we’re getting close to the Super Bowl.”
• People are reading the emails sent to the government.

Additional notes from the meeting:

• Governor: Thanks for all the retailers out there. Your sacrifice has saved lives.
• Senate Republicans are disappointed about today’s announcement to extend the stay at home order to May 18. Governor says, “you crank that dial wrong, and it is catastrophic on what it can do.”
• Governor says, “COVID is most dangerous to those in congregate living facilities, it is most dangerous to the elderly, and and it’s most dangerous to those with underlying health conditions. I think our goal has always been, all along this process… once we have the capacity to test, trace and isolate, the goal here is to move to a scenario where we isolate those who are most vulnerable while we’re slowly building this herd immunity.”
• Governor says, “those of you out there listening, a lot of this kind of seems counterintuitive at times. Because the real answer here is… what I think you’d like to see is, ‘OK, you know with about 90 to 95 percent certainty who is most vulnerable here. You know where most of the deaths are happening. Why don’t you build the proverbial wall around them, put the emphasis on that, have the others social distance, and allow more things to open up?’ That’s basically the plan of what we’re trying to do. The problem is, with asymptomatic transmission, and knowing that it goes to younger people too, how do you actually do that?”   
• These long-term care facility fatalities are something we’re going to have to continue to focus on and figure out. It’s just a disproportionate number.
• “We’re gonna have to figure out something on this” with regards to graduation ceremonies. Governor says we may “potentially” be able to have weddings and graduation ceremonies in June. “I’m trying my best to be able to find a way to do them without putting people at risk.”
• Governor Walz is watching closely what’s happening in Georgia to see how that pans out 
• “I think if we get this right, we get most of our people back to work,” Governor says.

Read the MN Coronavirus Update for 4-29 Here

Here was the status of MN Governors Walz’s Safety Dials that showed that progression of the State reopening, prior to Thursday’s announcement: 

Brooklyn Center | Brooklyn Park | Crystal | Golden Valley | Maple Grove | New Hope | Osseo | Plymouth | Robbinsdale