MN Stay Home Order: Rules For Weddings, Funerals, Travel, More

MINNESOTA — Gov. Tim Walz Thursday extended the "Stay Home" order in Minnesota until Monday, May 18. However, starting May 4, retail businesses and other non-critical businesses may begin offering curbside pick-up. This will put up to 30,000 Minnesotans back to work in a safe, coordinated way, officials said in a news release.

Businesses must:

• Develop and publicly post a plan for how to open safely.
• Use online payment whenever possible.
• Employees and customers should wear masks and protective equipment.
• In curbside pick-up scenarios, social distancing guidelines apply. If possible, customers should not leave their vehicle.
• In delivery scenarios, items should be deposited outside a customer's residence.

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Here's what the new Stay Home order, set to expire May 18, says about an array of activities in Minnesota:

Health and safety activities

Individuals may seek emergency services; obtain medical services, supplies, and medications; and visit a healthcare or dental professional or facility, or a veterinarian. Individuals may also donate blood.

Outdoor Recreational Activity

Individuals must not engage in outdoor recreational activities where they will come into close proximity with others from different households. Individuals may engage in the activities listed below, provided that they follow the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (“DNR”) and MDH guidelines on outdoor recreation and guidelines for facilities and the public (“Outdoor Recreation Guidelines”) available at DNR’s COVID-19 website.

Supplies and services. Individuals may leave their residences to:

i. Obtain food, including delivery or carry-out services, beverages
(alcoholic and non-alcoholic), and other grocery items.
ii. Obtain gasoline.
iii. Obtain supplies needed to work from home.
iv. Obtain commercially available personal protective equipment and
supplies and materials necessary to make homemade source control
items such as face masks.
v. Obtain products needed to maintain the safety, sanitation, and essential
operation of homes and residences, businesses, and personally owned
vehicles, including automobiles and bicycles.
vi. Visit and use the services of laundromats and dry cleaners.
vii. Pick up retail products from establishments offering curbside pickup
services.

Essential intrastate and interstate travel

Minnesotans are encouraged to stay close to home and are strongly discouraged from engaging in unnecessary travel. Individuals may travel to exempted activities and may travel to return to a home or place of residence. Individuals may also travel into and out of Minnesota.

Funerals

Individuals may leave their home or residence to attend funerals, whether at a place of worship, funeral home, burial site, or other similar location, provided that the gathering consists of no more than 10 attendees. The space utilized must allow for social distancing and compliance with MDH and CDC Guidelines to the maximum extent possible. Venues should make accommodations for remote attendance, if possible, for others. Individuals who are at high risk from COVID-19 are strongly encouraged to attend remotely.

Weddings

Individuals may leave their home or residence to be married, to serve as witnesses, or to officiate a marriage, provided that the gathering consists of no more than 10 attendees. The wedding location must allow for social distancing and compliance with MDH and CDC Guidelines to the maximum extent possible. The restrictions on places of public accommodation adopted in Executive Orders 20-04, 20-18, and this Executive Order otherwise remain in effect.

Wearing masks

Walz: I strongly encourage all Minnesotans to wear a manufactured or homemade cloth face covering at all times when they leave their homes and travel to any public setting where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery and other stores), and to follow face covering guidelines issued by MDH and the CDC until this order is rescinded. Such face masks and coverings are for source control – to help limit the person wearing the covering from infecting others. They are not yet known to be protective of the wearer and thus are not personal protective equipment.

Read more restrictions and exceptions in the full text of the new Stay Home order below: