"My concern about this is there is still a lot of people who are not vaccinated.
"People who are not vaccinated still are at risk," she added.
TIM WALZ VACCINE MANDATE FREE
"The guidance is that fully vaccinated people are essentially free to go back to our activities that we did before the pandemic. "I certainly agree with the Governor that there is some good news here," she said. Malcolm cautioned that the lifting of the mandate does not mean that the pandemic is over. The end of the statewide mask mandate does not preclude local governments from setting and enforcing their own mask requirements. "We want to be clear that we don't expect businesses to be cops at the door asking for vaccine cards." "We know businesses without a state mandate will manage this in different ways," he said. would prove more of a challenge and less efficient," Walz said.Įmployment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove said some businesses may continue to require masks as way to help customers and employees feel safe. Walz and Malcolm said they considered keeping the mask mandate for those who were not fully vaccinated, but rejected that option as too difficult to enforce. "As we've done from the beginning we've followed CDC guidance as closely as we could."
"We're still analyzing everything that came out of this announcement," Walz said. People are considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last of the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The CDC said that regardless of vaccination status, masks should still be worn in crowded indoor settings, including airplanes, buses, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters. Last week, Walz set the state on a path that would have ended the mask mandate by July 1 or when 70% of Minnesotans older than 15 received at least one shot. Earlier in May, Walz announced that he would lift the statewide mask mandate by July 1 or by the time 70 percent of the state’s population 16 and older population have received a vaccine. Walz and Malcolm said they were surprised when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued the new mask guidance on Thursday. "It will come back if we don't continue to build up more vaccinations." "We don't have nearly enough people vaccinated to keep this virus suppressed," Malcolm said. But last week saw just 235,349 doses given. The pace of new shots has been slowing since the first week of April, when nearly 410,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. Altogether, 2.7 million, or 60.9% of those 16 and older, have received at least one shot. State health officials announced Thursday that more than 50% of the vaccine eligible population, or 2.2 million residents, has been fully vaccinated. Tim Walz had the legal authority to mandate face masks when he declared a public health emergency in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday. "We are the fourth highest state in the country for case growth." "I have really mixed feelings about this," said Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm.
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