Dear members:
On Wednesday, July 23rd, the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, announced a new Executive Order implementing a statewide requirement to wear facial coverings when inside indoor businesses and indoor public settings. Here are some highlights:
- The requirement will be effective beginning Saturday, July 25.
- Posting signage indicating masking is required.
- All workers and customers should be masked.
- It is the responsibility of the business to require that its workers, customers, and visitors are wearing face coverings consistent with the provisions of Executive Order 20-81.
- Businesses will need to update their COVID-19 preparedness plans to reflect the masking requirement.
- Digital and print materials related to the #MaskUpMN campaign are available for download on the State of Minnesota’s COVID-19 website.
I know these requirements may seem unreasonable to some, but it took four months of intense negotiations and sacrifice to get what we have now. We went from being completely closed, to take out only, to 50% capacity now. We have been given specific guidelines to follow we cannot allow for us to take a step backwards and jeopardize our current progress of being open at 50% capacity.
This mask requirements affects all types of places – like public buildings and all retailers statewide. The Governor and his team have prepared a Frequently Asked Question document on the masking requirement, which can be found here.
Standing together,
Tony Chesak
MLBA Executive Director