The Minnesota Department of Health reports 7,234 cases of coronavirus Monday, including 1,000 additional cases over the weekend. 428 people have died.
The latest stay at home order extension expires May 18, but Gov. Tim Walz and his administration are exploring how to get closer to opening restaurants and other kinds of businesses incrementally with safety the top priority.
Abdirahman Kahin, the owner of Afro Deli, has had to close three of his five locations, but is listening to state and health experts about how he could open in a way that makes customers feel comfortable in coming back.
“It’s going to be very tough, but the safety of our customers is very important,” Kahin said. “We will adjust, hopefully, for the next few months how we can operate in a safe way.”
It will be costly and it will be difficult, but many businesses in the hospitality industry think they’re ready now to get the wheels in motion for a return.
They’ll need lead time to bring staff back in, train them on modifications to business, readjust to the disrupted supply chain and restock without as much revenue.
“The hospitality industry is vitally important to Minnesota, both its economy and its culture,” Liz Rammer, president and CEO of Hospitality Minnesota which represents not just restaurants, but lodging, resorts, and campgrounds, said. “These businesses are who we are as Minnesotans and they’re the fabric of our communities throughout our state. We’re confident that our hospitality businesses are ready to open now. Our businesses and the public -- they’re ready to approach this new normal. They understand that there’s going to be a need for promoting effective social distancing, enhanced sanitation processes and ways to engage with one another in a meaningful and safe way.”
“The broad guidance will always apply: we have to stay safe, we have to wear masks, we have to stay clean, we have to make sure social distancing is in place, but that plays out in different ways in a gym than it does in, say, a church, or a restaurant or bar,” DEED Commissioner Steve Grove said. “We’re having these targeted consultations with trade associations, chambers of commerce, labor organizations, industry leaders, faith communities -- really getting quite specific. We’re getting into the weeds of this stuff: how does it work in different settings to get social distancing right, to get health screening right, to make these moves carefully?”
DEED is collecting feedback at mn.gov/deed/safework.
Gov. Walz says plans for maintaining physical distancing and being able to disinfect are top priorities but they’re exploring options.
“Some of the suggestions I’ve heard is 25 percent capacity,” Walz said. “And I just asked, ‘Does that make economic sense?’ You've got higher overhead if you open up a whole business, to bring people in you’re opened up at 25 percent, if that’s the theory, does that make money? Those are the things that I think we’re trying to kick back and forth.”
Walz did not give a definitive date of when restaurants could open back up. He says it will depend on feedback about consumer confidence. Just because an establishment is open, doesn’t mean people will come.
“We are not going to open up something and risk their lives...so when they do, and when that does come, there’s a much better chance people will go back to it,” Walz said. “We’re seeing some fascinating statistics about businesses that opened up in Georgia and nobody showed up.
