Governor Walz has announced new steps regarding Minnesota’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the Governor signed Executive Order 20-40 which ALLOWS roughly 100,000 Minnesotans to return to work but only if they follow overly restrictive and invasive requirements.
For more information on what businesses are reopening under Executive Order 20-40, please see the following link: https://mn.gov/deed/newscenter/covid/safework/non-critical/. But it's not NEARLY enough.
Additionally, Governor Walz announced that Minnesota schools will remain closed through the end of the school year. Instead, schools will continue distance learning measures. However, school districts state-wide are already preparing to "start over" next fall and include the instruction that students should have been receiving this year.
Minnesota is the third largest pork-producing state in the nation. However, due to the temporary shuttering of pork processing plants, hog farmers are currently over-stocked with pigs and have no place to send them. As a result, 3,000 pigs were euthanized in Minnesota last week. If our agriculture economy remains shut down much longer, 200,000 pigs or more could be euthanized in the coming weeks. Additionally, sows are not being bred or having their litters aborted because there is no space to raise the piglets. This will cause shortages well after we have resumed "normal" operations.
Our state unemployment rate is now even higher than New York's with over 16% of our work force filing for unemployment due to the shutdown.
Minnesota's economy is broken - and not because of the pandemic. It is broken because of government's response to it. The economic hardships imposed by Governor Walz must end, and all of Minnesota must be reopened.
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