Walz cautious of reopening businesses in rural areas first

SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Gov. Tim Walz responds to those who feel rural areas not hit hard by the coronavirus, and have hospital capacity, could open businesses before denser populated areas.

Walz says other states are looking at the possibility and he is open to doing the same. He adds it doesn’t take long for an outbreak to happen.

Walz notes Nobles County, where the JBS plant had an outbreak in Worthington has 1,011 cases. The county has a population of 21-thousand four hundred with around five percent of the population with Covid-19.

“We have to be careful that same thing doesn’t replicate itself in a restaurant, doesn’t replicate itself in a school classroom whatever that might be. So, these are the considerations we’re taking in,” Walz said.

Walz signed an executive order protecting federal Cares Act and state, local and tribal stimulus payments from being garnished by debt collectors. He says the debts are valid, but “Now is not the time to collect from the most vulnerable.”