Gov. Tim Walz extends Minnesota's stay-at-home order to May 4

Stay-home order extended to buy extra time; virus could peak in July

Apr 09, 20200

Glen Stubbe – Star Tribune count

In a tightly pooled press conference, Minn. Governor Walz provided an update on the state's next steps to respond to COVID-19. He was joined by Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove, and Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Joe Kelly and other state officials.

Gov. Tim Walz is extending a statewide stay-at-home order to May 4 to push back the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic into the summer - and to buy time for hospitals to stock up on supplies and for researchers to develop tests and treatments against the novel coronavirus.

The existing two-week stay-at-home order has already put Minnesota on a trajectory for a lower rate of cases than states such as New York and Louisiana, where hospitals have struggled to meet the demand of severely ill patients, the governor said. Even so, projections suggest the state will either run short or barely have enough intensive care hospital beds, ventilators, and masks and protective equipment for doctors and nurses to weather the expected surge of cases.

https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-hospital-grants-awarded-as-covid-19-spreads/569473642/