Health & Fitness

Coronavirus: See Full List Of Businesses Ordered To Close In MN

Minnesota businesses affected by the new rule must close by 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 17.

TWIN CITIES, MN — Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order Monday enacting the temporary closure of all Minnesota restaurants and bars to dine-in customers. He also ordered the temporary closure of public places, including theaters, museums, fitness centers, and community clubs.

The news comes after the Minnesota Department of Public Health’s announcement Monday that the number of new coronavirus cases in Minnesota climbed to 54, with multiple cases of community transmission.

A full list of businesses being closed is located at the end of this article.

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In an effort to support Minnesotans affected by these closures, Walz also signed Executive Order 20-05 to strengthen the state's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund so that workers who are not able to work as a result of COVID-19 have benefits available.

Specifically, the order waives the employer surcharge and allow the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development to pay unemployment benefits immediately, providing fast relief to employees who need it.

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"As the cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota continue to climb, we must take decisive action to curb the spread of this pandemic and protect the health and safety of Minnesotans," Walz said in a statement. "This is a challenging time for business owners, employees, children and families alike. We must come together as One Minnesota to care for our neighbors and slow the spread of COVID-19."

"Slowing the spread of COVID-19 is very important, and we continue to update our guidance as more information comes in," said MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm. "With Minnesota now having confirmed 54 cases of COVID-19 and three cases associated with community spread, we need to take these temporary actions to flatten the outbreak curve, so we can avoid stretching our health care system too much."

Businesses affected by this rule must close by 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 17 until March 27, according to a news release.

Delivery and curbside takeout services are permitted and should continue to observe the community mitigation strategies recommended by the Minnesota Department of Health.

The full list of businesses affected by this rule closing is below:

  • Restaurants, food courts, cafes, coffeehouses, and other places of public accommodation offering food or beverage for on-premises consumption. This excludes institutional and in-house food cafeterias for businesses, hospitals, and long-term care facilities
  • Bars, taverns, brew pubs, breweries, microbreweries, distilleries, wineries, tasting rooms, clubs, and other places of public accommodation that offer alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption
  • Hookah bars, cigar bars, and vaping lounges offering their products for on-premises consumption
  • Theaters, cinemas, museums, and indoor and outdoor performance venues;
  • Gymnasiums, fitness centers, recreation centers, indoors sports facilities, indoor exercise facilities, exercise studios, and spas
  • Amusement parks, arcades, bingo halls, bowling alleys, indoor climbing facilities, skating rinks, trampoline parks, and other similar recreational or entertainment facilities
  • Facilities of country clubs, golf clubs, boating or yacht clubs, sports or athletic clubs, and dining clubs

The announcement comes a day after Walz signed Executive Order 20-02, authorizing the temporary closure of Minnesota K-12 public schools to students.

Ten days have passed since Minnesota's first COVID-19 case was confirmed. A total of 1,893 patients have been tested so far. No deaths have occurred.

Hennepin, Ramsey and Dakota counties have cases where the virus spread from someone who had traveled to someone who had not traveled outside of Minnesota, health officials said Monday.


Also read: Coronavirus: Karl-Anthony Towns Gives $100K To Mayo Clinic

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