Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday will announce a coronavirus plan to allow elementary schools to open in exchange for keeping bars and restaurants closed to indoor in-person service.
On Tuesday night, Walz spokesman Teddy Tschann released the following statement: “Governor Walz will lay out a strategy tomorrow that prioritizes in-person learning for elementary students and continues to protect health care capacity by keeping indoor dining at bars and restaurants on pause through the holiday season. This plan will help bridge the gap to vaccination. The Governor will make his announcement and provide full details for other businesses and social settings (Wednesday) at 1:15 p.m.”
Walz will allow outdoor dining and drink service, with restrictions, according to multiple sources briefed on the matter.
The decision by Walz is part of an international trend, from New York City to Europe, of prioritizing K-5 schools over bars and restaurants that acknowledges several COVID facets:
- Children under 10 appear to be much less likely to fall ill from COVID-19 — and to infect others — for reasons not fully understood. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Prevention and an advisor to President-elect Joe Biden, said on his podcast last week that much remains unknown about how children spread the virus, but he thinks elementary schools can safely reopen — but not necessarily junior high and high schools.
- Indoor, maskless gatherings of adults, such as when drinking and eating — and especially when socializing in a bar later in the evening as alcohol flows — is a major source of transmission.
- The toll on young children of extended periods of distance learning and no socialization with peers is believed to be wide — not just on the kids, but on society and the economy. The children’s parents are often unable to work, or work effectively, not to mention the stress that parents in such straits can feel.
- The specter of young children failing to prosper and see their friends while young adults cavort into the night at bars has become increasingly unseemly for some, although the economic toll of closing bars and restaurants is apparent to all as well.
Currently, the state provides guidance to school districts based on how widespread coronavirus cases are in their communities. The guidance suggests schools be open for in-person, closed and only open for distance learning, or some hybrid of both. Thus far, state education officials have generally allowed local school districts to make their own decisions, although many have fallen in line with the state guidance.
Details of Walz’s new strategy were not available Tuesday night, but it would appear that he will change the current state guidance, at least for elementary schools, and allow them to open even when higher levels of the virus are spreading in the community than currently allowed.
Schools will be allowed to open starting Jan. 4, but none will be compelled to.
It’s unclear how many districts will be able to open. Many districts, especially larger ones, have spoken of logistical challenges of transportation, classroom layout and other aspects that would have to shift when changing from distance learning to in-person.
Walz closed bars and restaurants as part of a suite of restrictions nearly a month ago when cases suddenly surged at rates not seen elsewhere in the world. The restrictions, which included shutting down health clubs, youth sports and banning social gatherings with people outside your household, followed pleas from medical professionals, who were warning that hospitals were at risk of being overrun as the virus raged.
The “pause,” as Walz termed it, is set to expire Friday, but it’s clear now that he’ll continue at least some form of the closure of bars and restaurants.
OTHER NEWS COMING
Walz will announce Wednesday whether he’ll extend closures of health clubs. The industry has been lobbying to reopen, even at heavily reduced capacity, with reservations only and with masks required to be worn at nearly all times.
The governor will also discuss whether he’ll continue the ban on inter-household gatherings, which effectively outlawed extended family Thanksgiving dinners and Hanukkah menorah lightings — and could have the same effect on Christmas morning.
THE SCHOOLS ISSUE
State guidelines released in the summer advised school leaders to keep their elementary schools closed if their county had 50 or more coronavirus cases per 10,000 residents over a recent two-week period. The threshold for closing middle and high schools was set at 30 new cases per 10,000 residents.
Every county now exceeds those new-case thresholds.
Walz’s new order to be announced Wednesday will essentially get rid of the threshold for elementary schools.
School leaders also are expected to monitor the virus’s impact in their buildings, including the number of staff who are out sick or on quarantine. Today, elementary schools are closed in 47 of Minnesota’s 50 largest school districts, and all 50 have closed their middle and high schools.
No Minnesotans ages 5-19 have died from the coronavirus, according to Minnesota Department of Health statistics.
St. Paul Superintendent Joe Gothard is expected to announce Thursday night whether elementary schools will transition to a hybrid schedule on Jan. 19. The district has been in distance learning since March.
In his podcast, Osterholm said it’s hard to trust data on schools and coronavirus transmission because the people collecting it are trying to support their points of view.
Still, it’s evident that younger children are less likely to transmit the disease, he said, and it appears teachers who contract the virus are getting it from contacts outside the workplace.
“I think that 5- to 9-year-olds can clearly be in a classroom right now with the appropriate prevention practices in place, teachers can safely teach,” Osterholm said.
Older students, however, should remain in distance learning as long as case rates are high in their communities, he said.
“When the house is on fire in the community, these kids are going to be getting infected, they’re going to transmit it in the school, and distance learning really is the most valuable way of learning,” Osterholm said.
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