Minneapolis, St. Paul lift indoor mask mandates — except in city-run buildings

Minneapolis and St. Paul lifted their indoor mask mandates Thursday, though the mayors in both cities have left open the possibility they could return if COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surge again.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter implemented the rules — which required people to wear masks inside many businesses — six weeks ago amid a spike in cases fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant. The pair said Thursday that they were removing the requirements because they were encouraged by declining cases.

"Today, the Twin Cities has good reason to be hopeful for the future, and I know that our residents will continue stepping up for one another as we navigate this next phase together," Frey said in a statement. "While Minneapolis is experiencing a sustained downward trend in case and hospitalization rates, our public health team will continue closely monitoring relevant data — and that data will continue guiding policy decisions going forward."

The announcement came as governments around the world — at the local, state and national levels — are easing restrictions in response to plummeting caseloads. Recent polling has also shown that many Americans are saying their weariness of the pandemic's impacts on daily life outweighs their virus-related health concerns.

"Encouraging downward trends have improved our outlook significantly since January," Carter said in a statement. "I urge our community to continue following public health guidance and keep our momentum going."

Relief with reservations

Organizations representing business owners and workers said Thursday that they welcomed the news, which comes at a time when bars, restaurants and others in the hospitality industry are also coping with the decrease in the business that typically happens in cold, winter months.

"I have to say we're excited about the shift," said Wade Luneburg, political director for UNITE HERE, which represents people working in hotels, restaurants and convention centers. "It just means that COVID is bottoming out, at least for now, and that it's really an opportunity at a key time for our members to be able to get back to work."

The reception was less enthusiastic on social media, where some were quick to point out the mayors left the requirements in place for buildings owned or operated by the cities.

Carter spokesperson Kamal Baker said: "Just as we took a gradual approach to implementing the vaccine and mask requirements to slow the spread, we are taking the same gradual approach in lifting them as we track promising downward trends in Ramsey County."

Katie Lauer, a spokesperson for Frey, said the mayor felt keeping the mandate in place for city-owned buildings was "the right next step to ensure employees feel safe coming back to work in-person." Minneapolis began requiring many of its city employees to return to the office on a hybrid basis starting last week.

While the mayors lifted the mandates for face coverings, they're still encouraging people to use them. Businesses are free to implement their own requirements, if they wish.

Hours after the mask mandates were lifted, the Minnesota Timberwolves said fans will not be required to wear masks while inside Target Center, starting with the Thursday night game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Jonathan Weinhagen, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber, said he imagines some businesses will choose to implement their own, varying rules based on feedback from their employees and clients. Weinhagen said he's heard from some local restaurants that are losing business to the suburbs, though it's difficult to determine how much of that was attributable to the mask mandates, expired testing-or-vaccination requirements or public safety concerns. Others, he said, are hearing from employees who want an extra layer of protection against the virus.

"As I talk to employers and business owners and CEOs, there is this balancing act happening," he said. "We're really at this tension point with regards to ensuring that we reopen and provide people free access to the economy, at the same time ensuring that we don't go back into a place where this pandemic depresses and shuts down our ability to do work."

This is the second time the mayors have implemented — and lifted — mask mandates. The first face covering requirements came at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and both mayors rescinded the orders last summer, as cases fell and vaccinations reached a larger share of the population.

They reinstated them in early January, as the omicron variant fueled another increase in COVID-19 cases. Minneapolis' order required face coverings in "any indoor locations where members of the public may gather, visit or patronize." St. Paul's applied to businesses licensed by the city "at all times when social distancing of at least 6 feet is not maintained."

Infection numbers drop

Minneapolis officials said the latest available seven-day new case rate — based on data through Feb. 15 — is now 135 per 100,000 people and positivity rates are "below the high-risk threshold based on the latest reported data." They said they would continue to monitor case rates, hospitalization rates and hospital bed capacity.

In Ramsey County, cases and hospitalizations have decreased 56% and 15%, respectively, over the past week, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Officials in the Twin Cities are continuing to monitor the spread of an omicron subvariant, BA.2, which is 30-50% more infectious than its predecessor and has been detected in Twin Cities wastewater. Health officials have said it is too early to predict whether the subvariant will spark a new surge in local cases.

The decision to end the mask mandate comes two weeks after Frey and Carter rescinded a vaccine-or-test requirement for restaurants, bars and entertainment venues that was in effect for 22 days. Officials at the time said positive trends in data spurred them to roll back the more invasive measure — which drew backlash from some businesses — before changing their mask rules.

Carter and the St. Paul City Council have recently said they are evaluating the mayor's emergency declaration and executive orders with the goal of returning to the city's regular mode of governance as soon as possible.

The COVID-19 emergency declaration remains in place in Minneapolis. In their meeting Thursday morning, Minneapolis council members acknowledged that Frey had lifted the mask mandate but didn't discuss it in detail.