Tag: COVID-19

What you need to know about Minnesota’s COVID-19 restrictions

The governor has implemented everything from mask mandates to caps on gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19. 

Since March, Gov. Tim Walz has issued sweeping executive orders to slow the spread of coronavirus in the state, from business and school closures to a statewide mask mandate required in public indoor spaces and businesses in Minnesota.

The governor has started to slowly ease restrictions on businesses, schools and Minnesotans’ movements during the public health crisis, but he’s not yet ordered a full reopening of the state. (This FAQ was updated Dec. 16.)

What does Walz’s order say?

The governor let his stay-at-home order — which went into effect on March 28 — expire on May 18. That original order directed Minnesotans to stay home except for essential needs and services or if they worked in critical sectors. Continue reading.

‘Sit this one out’: Critics blast Ivanka Trump for claiming ‘lockdowns are not g​rounded in science’

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First Daughter Ivanka Trump, rumored to be exploring a possible entry into electoral politics after her father leaves office, is flexing her MAGA muscles more often these days. While the advisor to the president has generally focused her public statements on sometimes false but always positive framing of the Trump agenda and her perceived accomplishments, on Tuesday she went on the attack.

“These blanket lockdowns are not grounded in science,” tweeted Ivanka Trump, who has a history of ignoring stay-at-home orders herself and is neither a scientist nor a medical expert. “These arbitrary rules imposed by callous politicians are destroying lives. It is just wrong for small business owners to have fight so hard to keep their American dream alive.”

As many were quick to remind her, the “lockdowns” are necessary because President Donald Trump and his administration, including Ivanka Trump and her husband, senior advisor to the president Jared Kushner, refused to take the coronavirus seriously and engaged in a partisan attack on COVID-19 prevention. Continue reading.

Minnesota elementary schools can open January 18 for in-person instruction

The state will leave the decision to reopen to local school districts. 

All elementary schools in Minnesota will be allowed to open for hybrid or in-person instruction as soon as Jan. 18, if they are able to follow a newly expanded list of COVID-19 safety protocols.

The Wednesday announcement from Gov. Tim Walz marks a major shift in the state’s guidelines for public schools during the pandemic, which had previously pushed most districts to distance learning as COVID-19 spread widely. Middle and high schools will still be subject to the state’s original school reopening rules, and many that have moved to online learning will likely have to stay there until local virus cases drop significantly.

Walz called the change for elementary schools a “monumental move” that was prompted by a deepening understanding of where and how the virus is circulating, the ways to minimize its spread — and a growing concern about the academic, social and emotional losses for kids and families when school buildings are closed. New safety rules will include the mandatory mask and face-shield wearing by school staff and the option for staff members to get COVID-19 tests at school every two weeks. Continue reading.

Millions in COVID-19 relief soon headed for Minnesota businesses, workers

First round will go to businesses hurt most by state-mandated closures.

Minnesota’s divided Legislature this week managed something that its national counterpart in Washington, D.C., has yet to do: strike a deal to send relief to businesses and workers hit hardest by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Now comes the hard part.

As soon as Gov. Tim Walz signs the bill, state and local officials must identify and dole out hundreds of millions of dollars to thousands of businesses across the state. They need to extend unemployment insurance to more than 100,000 Minnesotans whose benefits are set to expire after the holidays. And they need to do it as quickly as possible. Continue reading.

 

For Rep. Dean Phillips, COVID-19 relief talks in Washington have been a balancing act

The freshman Democrat has said he’ll withhold his support for Pelosi without a relief package deal. 

Minnesota Democratic congressman Dean Phillips has thrust himself into the ongoing negotiations in Washington over a federal COVID-19 stimulus package, working with a group of lawmakers in both chambers to craft their own plan in the absence of a final deal from leaders.

Members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of 50 lawmakers, say they’ve kept momentum going for a deal by proposing alternatives, including a $908 billion package they split into two parts this week to make passage easier in a divided Congress.

But Phillips’ work as part of the group has put the freshman from Minnesota’s suburban Third District in an awkward position. At times he’s had to defend his conservative colleagues in the caucus on national TV, while privately putting the pressure on his own Democratic leadership in the House to strike a deal. Continue reading.

Lie of the Year: Coronavirus downplay and denial

NOTE: Even Minnesota Republicans have been part of this denial of the reality hurting members of over 4,575 Minnesotans’ families. That extends to doctor and Minnesota State Senator Scott Jensen.

A Florida taxi driver and his wife had seen enough conspiracy theories online to believe the virus was overblown, maybe even a hoax. So no masks for them. Then they got sick. She died. A college lecturer had trouble refilling her lupus drug after the president promoted it as a treatment for the new disease. A hospital nurse broke down when an ICU patient insisted his illness was nothing worse than the flu, oblivious to the silence in beds next door.   

Lies infected America in 2020. The very worst were not just damaging, but deadly. 

President Donald J. Trump fueled confusion and conspiracies from the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic. He embraced theories that COVID-19 accounted for only a small fraction of the thousands upon thousands of deaths. He undermined public health guidance for wearing masks and cast Dr. Anthony Fauci as an unreliable flip-flopper.  Continue reading.

FDA review clears path for second coronavirus vaccine, this one developed by Moderna

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NOTE: This article is provided free of charge by the Washington Post.

Regulators, who confirmed the vaccine was 94 percent effective and raised no serious safety concerns, could authorize it as early as Friday

By the end of the week, the United States could have two coronavirus vaccines.

A vaccine developed by biotechnology company Moderna appears poised for regulatory clearance after a detailed data review by Food and Drug Administration scientists confirmed the two-shot regimen was “highly effective” in a clinical trial and carried no serious safety concerns.

The FDA is likely to authorize the Moderna vaccine as soon as Friday, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue. Anticipating that decision shortly, Gen. Gustave Perna, who is overseeing the federal effort to distribute vaccines, said Monday that the United States was preparing to ship almost 6 million doses of the Moderna vaccines to 3,285 locations in the first week.

Minnesota businesses plan to defy Walz shutdown order

Loose-knit group of about 160 businesses committed to reopening early. 

An executive order issued last month by Gov. Tim Walz closing bars and restaurants and other businesses to slow the spread of COVID-19 is set to expire Friday.

But a loose-knit group of businesses doesn’t plan to wait to reopen their doors.

ReOpen Minnesota Coalition, which claims support from roughly 160 statewide businesses ranging from bars to fitness studios, plans to defy the governor by encouraging members to reopen Wednesday, the same day Walz is expected to extend or modify his executive order or let it expire. Their livelihoods — and their constitutional rights — are at stake, said Lisa Monet Zarza, a coalition member who owns Alibi Drinkery in Lakeville. Continue reading.

Minnesota lawmakers pass COVID-19 relief package for businesses, workers

Deal includes business relief and an extension of unemployment benefits. 

The Minnesota Legislature late Monday night approved a COVID-19 relief package, providing aid to struggling businesses and extending unemployment insurance to workers whose benefits could dry up after the holidays.

The $242 million deal will funnel grants directly to bars, restaurants and entertainment venues that Gov. Tim Walz ordered closed for four weeks in mid-November as a second wave of COVID-19 cases hit the state.

It now goes to Walz, who said he supports the aid package. Continue reading.