(ST. PAUL, MN) – Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (R- East Gull Lake) today released the following statement regarding Governor Tim Walz’s latest COVID changes:
“The number of infections across the country is going down, the need for ICU beds is going down, and the vaccinated population is going up. The trend lines are all good and that is good news for all of us. The Governor announced he is opening up things more, and the more things open up, the more kids in school, and more businesses and venues open, the better. It’s positive news except – it’s only his hand on the dial.
“Last January I put out guidelines that could be a benchmark to lift emergency powers, and that was simply vaccinating everybody over age 65. We’ve hit 70% of seniors and we’re shifting vaccination eligibility to other groups. We’re at that point where the people most in danger from COVID are vaccinated.
“We renew our demand the Governor remove his emergency powers so we can work together, hand in hand. We really showed that we can do that early on in the pandemic by passing a number of bills and half a billion dollars in resources to attack the virus together. My hope is that this latest benchmark of 70% of people over age 65 vaccinated is the time to end emergency powers. Let’s finish off this terrible virus together.”