Insider: Expect Governor to Announce Reopen Date this Week

ST. PAUL -- We could know by the end of this week when the state is fully open again from COVID-19 restrictions.

Governor Tim Walz has been signaling that a dial-back announcement is coming. Political Insider Blois Olson says he's expecting the governor to set a date that Minnesota will reopen probably around Memorial Day.

The governor is going to look at a June 1st time frame to try to get the state as open as possible.  I don't know the specifics but would imagine there are fewer restrictions on bars and restaurants, there are more opportunities for venues, and many more capacity at sporting events and things like that.

Olson says, with COVID-19 vaccines now widely available, governors across all states are under increasing pressure to open up.

There's only so much governors across the country, including governor Walz, who recognize that they can control anymore and they want to mitigate that, but they also understand there's a lot of pressure to reopen as much of the economy as possible.

Olson says he is expecting crowd sizes for outdoor places like Target Field and summer concerts will be allowed to increase. However, he expects things like indoor mask mandates and some other mitigation measures to stay in place.

On Friday the governor said he expects the Minnesota State Fair to be 'pretty close to normal' this year, which Olson says is a pretty good indication of where his head is at as far as capacity limits for outdoor events this summer.

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