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Codie Deutsch of 75 Diner and Felicia Hanson of Sincerely Yours listened intently to Gov. Tim Walz’s online press conference on May 20.
As they hoped, he announced another round of loosening restrictions on restaurants, salons and other businesses that were closed on March 18 to slow the coronavirus spread.
Deutsch learned Wednesday that her restaurant could serve patrons for outdoor dining.
“I wasn’t surprised,” she said. “I knew opening June 1 wasn’t going to happen, but he’s been turning the dial, and you knew there would be another turn before he let it happen.”
Deutsch said she and her employees have been filling orders for drive up and take-out breakfast and lunch, but she said they’ve done very few breakfast meals, and lunch is only a fraction of their usual business.
“Luverne has been supportive, but I would love to just open our doors,” she said.
“We had planned a big event for our 2-year anniversary next week but had to put it on hold due to Covid-19.”
Under current coronavirus orders, restaurants can add outdoor service to the already allowed take-out and delivery.
In another two weeks, if the coronavirus remains at bay, Gov. Walz will consider “turning the dial” again to allow restaurants to open at 50-percent capacity with safety restrictions in place.
Deutsch said she’s considering how to manage outdoor seating with her South Highway 75 restaurant, and she received a donation of outdoor tables to help make it possible.
“I’m hoping that in six months we can get back to the way things were a year ago, but realistically, I bet it’s closer to a year before we are back to normal,” Deutsch said.
“Other states have statistics that have shown people just aren’t going out right now. I think I heard that Georgia’s restaurants are operating at 15 percent of what they were doing a year ago. This pandemic has everyone a little nervous to be out and about in public places.”
Governor turns dial to 25-percent occupancy for salons
For barbershops and salons, being open at 25 percent will allow them to slowly start catching up with clients.
“I’m booked four weeks out,” Hanson said Wednesday after the governor’s announcement. “I had two weeks booked when they shut us down. My clients are saying how bad their hair looks, but they’re not the only ones.”
Hanson operates Sincerely Yours with only one other stylist, Meegan Ross, so she said it won’t be hard to manage social distancing.
“We have a pretty good-sized shop,” she said. “We just need to go down and figure out where to space things.”
There is also a long list of precautions released with the governor’s orders, but Hanson said she hadn’t yet reviewed them all.
“The information wasn’t loading; everyone must have been online at the same time,” she said.
But she read enough to know that customers must wait in their cars or outside the building for their appointments. Salon staff will sanitize spaces between clients, who will be quizzed about their health, required to wear masks and limited in what they may bring with them into the salon.
“We have strong stipulations with our board rules already, so this is going to be interesting,” Hanson said.
But she added that she, too, wants to be cautious about reopening the community for business.
“Many of my clients are older, and we do work incredibly close to people,” Hanson said. “I’m pretty cautious. If we don’t stop the spread, I can’t go to work.”
And she, like many other small owners, needs to start making money again.
“I’m better off than some of the younger ones,” she said.
“But I just started getting some unemployment [benefits] after seven weeks without any money coming in.”
Cautious approach
With the numbers of new coronavirus cases leveling off, government leaders have been pressured to let up on some of the stay-at-home orders that had shuttered businesses and crippled the economy.
In Rock County, Emergency Management Director Kyle Oldre struggled to say what the right call would be if he were in charge.
To keep businesses closed would mean a continued chokehold on a dying economy. To allow too much movement among people could mean a re-fire of the highly contagious virus that medical experts are still learning how to manage.
“Let’s just hope people are smart about distancing,” Oldre said Wednesday. “And if you’re older and more vulnerable, stay home.”
As of Tuesday, Rock County had 21 confirmed cases so far. That’s one more than the week prior, and two more than two weeks ago.
Minnesota’s cases continue to rise, with 21,960 confirmed cases so far, and hospitalizations in the rise. Of the confirmed cases so far, 899 have died and 15,523 were released from isolation.
In nearby Sioux Falls and Worthington, where outbreaks in meat processing plants had sickened hundreds, the numbers have also leveled off somewhat.
Minnehaha County on Tuesday reported 3,289 coronavirus cases so far (compared with 2,978 on May 12), and Nobles County reported 1,478 (up from 1,269 on May 12).