Minnesota has 1,069 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 34 deaths. The four more from Monday were all residents of long term care.
Governor Walz says it’s “pretty clear” he will extend the stay at home order and we’re expected to know what that looks like Wednesday.
Several states like Washington, Massachusetts and Delaware have extended theirs until May with the federal government not far behind.
Walz says the next step is determining what will be tweaked while not undoing progress.
“Stick with us on this. We are doing the best we can,” Walz said. “If there is any possibility at all of getting you back into that workforce without increasing the chance of spread or tapping out our healthcare system, that is what our intent is to do, to do it smartly. And that is listening to a whole bunch of different data points.
“I think, first and foremost, this is a success story of Minnesotans choosing to do this. Now we need to decide how we thread that needle accurately to keep the positive health news moving while we also then start to ramp up the economic side of it.”
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Dept. of Health commissioner Jan Malcolm says the community mitigation measures are effective based on the slower rate of doubling.
At the beginning of March, the state’s case total was doubling every one to two days. Since the week of March 18, the doubling slowed to once every eight days, she said.
She cautioned about limited testing and now knowing every case, but said this progress is exactly why no one should have a false sense of security.
“That’s good news for our state,” Malcolm said. “It tells us that the social distancing and other mitigations are having a positive impact. We need to keep this up to reduce the chance that our healthcare will be overwhelmed by a surge in cases.
That includes this month with Passover, Easter and Ramadan all in the next few weeks.
“I hear Minnesotans on this,” Walz said. “I’m hearing from the religious community, from many of my neighbors, from legislators about figuring out if there’s a way to social distance and be able to honor our traditions. We’re continuing to work on that but I would just remind people the best thing we can do is the social distancing. The best thing we can do is be smart about how we go about our daily business.”
