Tag: pandemic

Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Update: January 22, 2021

Governor Walz, Lieutenant Governor Flanagan, House and Senate DFL Energy Leads Announce Plan to Achieve 100 Percent Clean Energy in Minnesota by 2040


On Thursday,  Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan announced a set of policy proposals that will lead Minnesota to 100 percent clean energy in the state’s electricity sector by 2040. The policies build on the success that Minnesota has already achieved in reducing dependence on fossil fuels and increasing the use of clean energy resources to power the state while ensuring reliable, affordable electricity.

“The time to fight climate change is now,” said Governor Walz. “Not only is clean energy the right and responsible choice for future generations, clean energy maximizes job creation and grows our economy, which is especially important as we work to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. I am proud to announce a set of policy proposals that will lead Minnesota to 100% clean energy in the state’s electricity sector by 2040. Minnesotans have the ingenuity and innovation needed to power this future, and we are ready to pioneer the green energy economy.”

Photo courtesy of the Star Tribune 

As Governor Walz Calls for Further Supply from Federal Government, Minnesota Launches COVID-19 Vaccine Pilot Program

On Monday, Governor Tim Walz announced that Minnesota has launched a COVID-19 vaccine pilot program in partnership with local public health and school districts. These sites will initially serve adults 65 years of age or older, as well as prekindergarten through grade 12 educators, school staff, and child care workers. The community vaccination pilot program will be the foundation for mass vaccination clinics in Minnesota communities once the federal government increases vaccine supply. The nine pilot sites launched this week with a small number of doses for eligible Minnesotans.

Governor Walz looks forward to partnering with the Biden administration on procuring more vaccines for Minnesotans. He sent a letter with other governors last week expressing frustration with the previous administration’s botched COVID-19 vaccine distribution and urged the federal government to purchase as many doses of the safe and effective vaccine as possible so states can get more shots in arms in the coming weeks. 

Governor Walz Visits Long-Term Care Center, Discusses Vaccination Effort

Today, Governor Walz visited a rehabilitation and skilled nursing care center to discuss the successful vaccination effort in long-term care settings. As of Thursday, more than 203,000 Minnesotans have gotten at least their first dose of
vaccine. Nearly 42,000 Minnesotans have received both doses. The most recent data reported to the State of Minnesota shows that 43,000 individuals in long-term care settings have received a shot via our pharmacy partners.

Governor Walz Appoints Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry

Governor Walz today appointed Roslyn Robertson as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI). Robertson’s extensive history of leadership at DLI most recently includes her service as Temporary Commissioner. This appointment follows an application review and interview process beginning with a call for applications last fall. Robertson replaces Nancy Leppink as Commissioner for a term beginning today.

Governor Walz Orders Flags Flown at Half-Staff in Honor of Lives Lost to COVID-19

United States flag at half mast, seen from below with the sun behind

On Monday, Governor Walz directed all flags at state and federal buildings in Minnesota to be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 to remember, mourn, and honor lives lost due to COVID-19. Governor Walz encouraged all Minnesotans to light a candle in their window as a sign of remembrance and unity during these challenging times.

Governor Walz Urges Minnesotans to Download Minnesota’s COVID-19 Exposure Notification App

Now more than ever, we need your help to share the news about COVIDaware MN. As Minnesota opens up, make sure your friends & families understand their COVID-19 exposure risk. COVIDaware MN notifies you if you’ve been exposed to COVID-19, and you can anonymously alert others if you test positive. 

Get the COVIDaware MN app from the App Store or Google Play Store. 

Biden’s Covid team grapples with a basic question: Where’s all the vaccine?

States are warning they’re running out of the vaccine, with little sense of when more will arrive.

As President Joe Biden spent his first full day in office issuing executive actions aimed at containing the coronavirus, his administration scrambled to get a handle on a key unanswered question: How much vaccine is actually available?

Conflicting accounts of supply totals have bedeviled federal and state health officials, complicating the new administration’s sweeping pandemic response plan and casting fresh doubts on how long it will take Biden to bring the virus under control.

Just about half of the nearly 38 million Covid-19 shots distributed by the federal government have been administered to date, according to Centers for Disease Control data. That indicates there’s a glut of unused doses around the country. Continue reading.

Fauci says it’s ‘liberating’ working under Biden

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Anthony Fauci on Thursday said it has been “liberating” to work as the nation’s top infectious diseases doctor under President Biden after his experience working for former President Trump.

Speaking at the White House press briefing, Fauci was asked if he feels “less constrained” in the new administration after clashing with Trump and eventually being sidelined last year.

“I can tell you I take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the president, so it was really something that you didn’t feel you could actually say something and there wouldn’t be any repercussions about it,” he said. “The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence and science is, and know that’s it — let the science speak — it is somewhat of a liberating feeling.” Continue reading.

Biden signs order requiring masks on planes, buses, trains and at airports

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NOTE: This article is provided free to read by The Washington Post.

President Biden signed an order Thursday mandating masks in airports and on many planes, trains, ships and intercity buses. His action comes on the heels of a Wednesday order — his first as president — requiring masks on federal property.

Together, the two orders come as close to a national mask mandate as his federal powers may allow, leaving it to states and municipalities to require residents to wear masks at a local level.

Biden’s choice of masks as a leading item on his agenda illustrates a possible early win in tackling the virus and the challenges he faces in trying to turn around the nation’s response to the coronavirusand reduce its devastating death toll. It’s also a break from the Trump administration’s handling of the issue. Continue reading.

Biden to extend eviction moratorium through March

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The executive action is expected to shield millions from losing their homes

On his first day as president, Joe Biden plans to sign an executive order extending a freeze on evictions nationwide through the end of March, a move aimed at shielding millions of renters struggling during the pandemic.

Biden officials said the new president will on Wednesday approve a raft of executive actions to address issues ranging from immigration to the public health crisis caused by the pandemic.

As part of this Day One action, Biden is expected to sign orders to extend the eviction moratorium and to pause student loan interest payments, while pushing Congress to approve the $1.9 trillion economic relief plan he unveiled last week. Continue reading.

Most Americans say the coronavirus pandemic is not controlled, Post-ABC poll finds

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As President Trump is leaving office, just over 1 in 10 Americans say the coronavirus pandemic in the United States is mostly under control, despite the departing president’s assertions that record case levels are exaggerations, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The nationwide survey shows that large majorities of people of all political affiliations say they think the deadly virus, which arrived in the country a year ago, is only somewhat under control or not at all controlled.

About 1 in 5 Republicans say they think the pandemic is at least mostly under control, with fewer than 1 in 20 regarding it as completely controlled, the survey finds. Democrats are more than twice as likely as those identifying with the GOP to say they perceive the virus as not at all under control. Continue reading.

Minnesota GOP lawmaker’s death brings home the reality of COVID

When Sen. Jerry Relph fell ill after an election victory gala and died, it underlined the consequences of the party’s rejection of health experts’ guidance.  

Republicans in the Minnesota Senate were feeling jubilant after the November election. They had held onto a slim majority following an onslaught by Democrats trying to win control. Now, it was time to party.

More than 100 senators, their spouses and their staff members gathered for a celebratory dinner at a catering hall outside the Twin Cities on Nov. 5, two days after Election Day. Masks were offered to guests on arrival, but there was little mask wearing over hours of dining and drinking, at a moment when a long-predicted surge in coronavirus infections was gripping the state.

At least four senators in attendance tested positive for COVID-19 in the days that followed. One was the Republican majority leader, Paul Gazelka, the state’s most outspoken opponent of mask mandates and shutdown orders during the pandemic. He compared his symptoms to a “moderate flu” and recovered. So did two other senators who had tested positive after the dinner. Continue reading.

The Trump administration bailed out prominent anti-vaccine groups during a pandemic

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Five groups received more than $850,000 in PPP loans to help small businesses through the pandemic

Five prominent anti-vaccine organizations that have been known to spread misleading information about the coronavirus received more than $850,000 in loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, raising questions about why the government is giving money to groups actively opposing its agenda and seeking to undermine public health during a critical period.

The groups that received the loans are the National Vaccine Information Center, Mercola Health Resources, the Informed Consent Action Network, the Children’s Health Defense and the Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom that fights misinformation and conducted the research using public documents. The group relied on data released in early December by the Small Business Administration in response to a lawsuit from The Washington Post and other news organizations.

Several of the Facebook pages of these organizations have been penalized by the social network, including being prohibited from buying advertising, for pushing misinformation about the coronavirus. Continue reading.

See How the Vaccine Rollout Is Going in Your State

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The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said about 10.6 million people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and that about 1.6 million people had been fully vaccinated. That is far short of the goal federal officials set to give at least 20 million people their first shots before the end of 2020.

The federal government said Friday that it had delivered about 31.2 million doses to states, territories and federal agencies. The shipments, which came after a record-setting race to develop, study and approve a vaccine, have marked a turning point in the pandemic at a time when deaths and cases continue to set records.

But federal health officials recently acknowledged that the vaccine rollout had had a slower-than-expected start and said they did not have a clear understanding as to why only a portion of the doses shipped across the nation had made it into arms. Continue reading.

400,000: The invisible deaths of covid-19

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In a Connecticut hospital room, a woman less than 48 hours from death posted on Facebook: “It is now just a matter of trying to keep me comfortable till I pass.”

A few days before Christmas, less than a week before he died at home, a California man texted his daughter: “Vaccines on the way. Gettin kinda close.”

Nearly 400,000 Americans have now died of covid-19. It took 12 weeks for the death toll to rise from 200,000 to 300,000. The death toll has leaped from 300,000 to almost 400,000 in less than five weeks. Continue reading.