Governor Tim Walz says he is creating a working group to re-open the economy once the coronavirus passes.

Right now, he says he’d love to be able to re-open the state now with restaurants and everything else, but says that will kill people. When the time comes, though, Walz says it might not be business as usual for bars and restaurants.

Minnesota economic officials announced today that over 451,000 Minnesotans filed for unemployment benefits in the last month. That’s double the number of those who filed in all of 2019.

Walz also said that increasing testing is key for reopening the state and keeping it open in the future. He remains optimistic that testing capacity can increase very soon and has set a goal of 5,000 COVID-19 tests per day. The Governor also said he is looking at cooperative agreements with other Midwest states in order to increase the supplies and development of testing needed to monitor the spread of the coronavirus.

Health officials reported nine more COVID-19 related deaths today, but only 45 new cases, which is being attributed to lower testing numbers yesterday following the Easter holiday weekend. Officials say 98.5% of all deaths they’ve investigated involved people with pre-existing conditions, and 87 is the median age for the people who have died.

By — Nathan Green