Residents of Minneapolis received a small reprieve from stringent COVID-19 restrictions Friday, but plenty of rules still remain in place.
“The city of Minneapolis has lifted its ban on bar counter seating just in time for the weekend,” Minnesota Public Radio News (MPR) reported. “Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the decision was based on public health data, showing a decrease in COVID-19 cases in the city.”
But Frey, a Democrat perhaps best known for his lackluster leadership during the riots over George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, is still requiring bars to in the city to abide by some rather far-out rules.
In order to enter a restaurant in Minneapolis, the customer will still be required to make a reservation. Further, no more than two people can sit next to each other at a bar, and between pairs there must be adequate distance.
“Establishments also have to lower music volume to keep patrons from talking loudly and sitting too close together,” MPR reported.
At the state level, Gov. Tim Walz (D) graciously allowed restaurants to remain open for an extra hour – until 11 p.m. – citing progress made in fighting COVID-19 in the state.
Meanwhile, Minnesota, like many other states, is battling teachers’ unions in order to reopen its public schools, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said is safe, even without teachers and students being vaccinated.
Despite the remaining hysteria, there is good news. Some experts believe America is nearing the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel.
Dr. Marty Makary is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the chief medical adviser to Sesame Care.
He published an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal observing that COVID-19 infections have declined by 77 percent in the past six weeks. That decline, he says, is not due to vaccinations, but rather herd immunity, which he suggests has been vastly underestimated.
“Testing has been capturing only from 10% to 25% of infections, depending on when during the pandemic someone got the virus,” Makary wrote. “Applying a time-weighted case capture average of 1 in 6.5 to the cumulative 28 million confirmed cases would mean about 55% of Americans have natural immunity.”
Noting that 15 percent of Americans have received the vaccine, and that that number is quickly rising, Makary believes America will have achieved full herd immunity by April, and that Americans will be able “to resume normal life.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Minnesota Sun and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
