Governor Walz has announced a timeline to ease Minnesota’s COVID-19 restrictions due to the increasing number of Minnesotans becoming fully vaccinated. Currently, Minnesota has 2.5 million residents who have had at least one vaccination shot with more becoming fully vaccinated every day. With Minnesota showing that it is one of the states with residents who have the greatest willingness to get vaccinated, Governor Walz announced his three-step plan to bring Minnesota back into a greater sense of normalcy.
Starting May 7th at noon, there will be an easing of restrictions for indoor and outdoor venues, social gatherings, and restaurants. This will release the cap on capacity, any distancing limits, and mandatory closing time for outdoor venues, restaurants, and social gatherings. It will also increase the occupancy capacity for indoor venues, social gatherings, and restaurants. This will be the first step until May 28th when all capacity limits indoor and outdoor will be lifted, with certain requirements still in place like mask requirements indoors and business safety plans in place for consumer protections.
The final stage will be the lifting of the mask mandate within Minnesota by July 1st or whenever 70% of the 16+ population are vaccinated. While local jurisdictions, restaurants, or businesses may still require a mask this will open Minnesota further as more residents become fully vaccinated. With the state’s current numbers, Governor Walz announced that Minnesota is only 437,000 people away from reaching that goal and encouraged Minnesotans to sign up for their appointment and to make sure their family and friends who have not received their shot make an appointment today.
