COVID-19 Update | MN Governor Extends Stay-at-Home Order to May 4

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz Extends Stay-at-Home Order until May 4th in response to novel coronavirus pandemic

TODAY: Governor Walz to Address Minnesota on Next Steps to Combat COVID-19

Today, Wednesday, April 8, 2020, Governor Tim Walz provided an update on the State of Minnesota‘s next steps to combat COVID-19.

Update from Governor Walz:

• Five more COVID-19 deaths, bringing total to 39 
• Received approval from federal government for our state emergency declaration
• Issued Stay-at-Home order two weeks ago, which was set to expire Friday
• Minnesota has taken bold action to buy time that will save lives
  • we are currently staying at home
  • distance learning
  • supporting each other, particularly critical workers
• Continue to buy time that will save lives by extending the Stay-at-Home Order until May 4 (from April 10)
• Public Accommodation Order (which includes bars, restaurants, and places of amusement) extended until May 4 (from May 1)
• We’re using this time to build needed prevention and treatment capacity
• Why extend?
  • National guidance from the CDC
  • Actions by peer states
  • Modeling
  • Expert opinion
  • Epidemiological data
  • Hospitals asking
• The federal government recently extended nationwide social distancing guidelines until May
• The CDC continues to provide strong guidance to social distance and limit travel
• The vast majority of states have issued stay at home orders
• Epidemiologic data — what we’re doing is working. Minnesota has remained relatively flat. Doubling of COVID-19 is happening every 8 days. 
• We cannot rest easy. This can explode overnight if we don’t take the proper precautions. 
• By continuing the stay-at-home order, we buy more time 
• Every day we are learning how about how the disease progresses, here and across the country
• We updated our model and have revised the results of additional models
• By continuing the Stay-at-Home Order, we buy more time to save more lives
• Extending into early May pushes the projected peak into July
• Staying at home has worked by helping to slow the spread so far and extending this strategy can extend the benefits.
• Expert Opinion:
  • public health experts in MN and beyond, including the MDH, recommend extending the stay at home order
  • Minnesota’s hospitals and health care workforce, which are working around the clock to prepare for the coming surge of COVID-19 patients, are asking for an extension of the Stay at Home order to buy more time. 
• What are we doing this time?
  • focusing on response, recovery and resources
    • partnering with hospitals to increase hospital capacity
    • working with private sector to buy ventilators, PPE and supplies
    • providing equitable distance learning and childcare for workers in critical sectors
    • Planning to protect and isolate the most at-risk Minnesotans for the long-term
    • Building social distancing strategies for starting to re-open society
    • Ensuring all Minnesotans have enough to eat
    • And, experts will keep working on new treatments.
• We can say with 95% confidence that we are going to need a minimum of 3,000 beds starting in the middle of May 
• Alternate care sites would not treat COVID-19 patients
• Right now, most ventilator manufacturers are required by law to sell to the federal government. If we’re working with a company that is obligated to sell to the federal government, then we are now in a backorder situation. That’s when we do everything we can, to turn over every stone to try and find these. The good news is that we think a lot of ventilators will come from Medtronic, who has already committed and has already delivered some to us. That procurement feels a little more secure for us.
• We are more than willing to help every other state, we just don’t have the capacity and reserve at this point in time.
• Projected PPE availability that we need for health care providers… the supply chain is strained both here and internationally. We had some on order from China, but then the Chinese Army surrounded the facility and prevented that from happening.
• The next two weeks will get us a bit of a push out of the peak and allow us to get some of the backorder ventilators and the PPE necessary to treat people.
• Big Challenges Remain:
  • We are competing with our fellow states for supples. We won’t be able to buy everything we need and we still may fall short of the surge
    • but we need to save every life that we can
  • These orders impact Minnesotans’ ability to earn a living, which impacts their health. It hurts our employers large and small.
    • 355K unemployment applications to date, numbers this week have begun to decline
    • 11.4% of our labor force is temporarily jobless
• State commissioners are developing a short-term plan to help more businesses re-open, if they abide by social distancing.
• These sacrifices are working. The only vaccination we have is social distancing. We have flattened the curve more than any other state. 

•  How COVID-19 is impacting our community 

  Find all of our latest COVID-19 stories here

Update from Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm:

• Availability of testing is still limited, but expanded on April 1 to include:
  • first responders and child care providers
  • circulation of testing of vulnerable populations
• There are still challenging supply chain issues (e.g., swabs, reagents)
• A group of nearly 40 testing experts meet regularly to discuss strategy
• MDH has developed a robust surveillance strategy to monitor influenza-like illness
• time to organize and increase our testing efforts provides a clearer picture on end of epidemic, serology studies began this week at Mayo Clinic 
• We have made progress, it’s important to sustain it, but we know the peak is going to come.
• Globally: 1.5 million cases and 83,000 deaths
• U.S. 400,000 confirmed cases, and 13,000 deaths
• In MN, today we have 1,154 confirmed cases, and 39 deaths. Four of those were elderly people in long term care situations. One was a person in an urban area in their 50s with underlying health conditions.
• Thanks to Health Department employees in the infectious disease division who are doing contact and case investigations. It’s difficult work to make those phone calls.
• Minnesotans living in rural areas of the state are following the social distancing guidelines with a little less rigor. Our past data show rural Minnesotans are at higher risk for COVID-19 because they’re older and have more underlying health conditions as a whole. We need people in all corners of the state to take social distancing seriously.

Update from Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Joe Kelly:

• Social distancing gives us more time 
• We use that time to finish up our planning on finding and preparing alternate care sites 
• We use that time to accumulate as much PPE, supplies and medical equipment as we can get our hands on.
• We use that time to put a medical sheltering plan together for people who are either infected with COVID-19 or might be infected.
• Grateful to the MN National Guard who reported for duty in Oslo today to help that town fight another Red River flood.
• Thanks for giving us extra time to get ready.

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

• We are among the first states to process additional $600 payments that came through the federal CARES Act. We were able to process almost 200,000 applications.
• Many Minnesotans are making more money during unemployment than they were during day-to-day work
• If you applied for that money you don’t have to do anything additional. It backdates to March 29. We expect checks to hit into bank accounts later this week.
• 367,194 total of new applications for unemployment insurance since March 16.
• We’re taking about 6,000 phone calls a day, and the wait time is around 62 minutes
• We want to make sure small businesses know about the money available to them. Please go to SBA.gov
  • EIDL grants, including $10,000 loan advance for small businesses
  • Paycheck protection program for up to $10M in wages
• Minnesota Small Business loan programs:
  • $30M in 0% interest loans, $10M in loan guarantees
• We’re doing everything we can to get Minnesotans money fast to help quickly during this difficult time.

Q&A Period:

• Landscaping at golf courses will be allowed under the extension of the stay at home order 
• Updated federal modeling projects up to 200,000 COVID-19 deaths nationwide.
• We’re encouraging people to go out and stay healthy, but don’t go up north and overrun Mille Lacs. 
• On indoor vs. outdoor transmission: “In warmer, humid air, particles fall to the ground faster,” says MDH Commissioner Malcolm. We still have to be careful as it gets warmer with social distancing, she said.
• Regarding schools reopening Governor Walz said, “I think it’s unlikely, but I wouldn’t close the door 100 percent.”

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