St. Paul poised to end vaccine-or-test requirement for restaurants, bars

Improving COVID-19 trends have St. Paul eyeing an earlier than planned end to the vaccine-or-test requirements instituted last month for restaurants, bars and other entertainment venues.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter "is hopeful that he will be able to lift the order this week," spokesman Kamal Baker said Tuesday.

Minneapolis may follow suit. Mayor Jacob Frey "hopes to lift it as soon as evidence supports the decision," city spokeswoman Sarah McKenzie said Tuesday. "The end of the week is a possibility, but he wants to review data with the experts."

Carter and Frey announced the requirements for diners amid a wave of cases and hospitalizations fueled by the omicron variant. The orders took effect Jan. 19, though ticketed events were not required to comply until Jan. 26.

Ramsey County reported more than 700 cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days, according to data from the county's COVID-19 dashboard updated Monday. Two weeks ago, that rate was more than 1,800 cases per 100,000 residents.

"With a promising downward trend of case counts in Ramsey County, we look forward to discontinuing the requirement as soon as possible," Carter said in a statement Tuesday.

St. Paul's vaccine requirement was set to expire 40 days after it took effect. Baker said Carter does not have imminent plans to lift St. Paul's mask mandate for businesses licensed by the city, but said "the mayor continues to monitor promising downward trends."

Minneapolis' order did not have an expiration date, but Frey said he expected the measure to be temporary.

Both mayors said they implemented the requirements to slow the spread of the virus and avoid the widespread shutdowns that ravaged businesses in the pandemic's early months.

"I don't know that there is a perfect playbook at all for this stuff," Carter said in a Jan. 19 interview. "It's about trying to figure out how to balance all of the needs that we have, including both those physical health needs and our economic and emotional health needs."

News of the vaccine mandate last month drew criticism from some corners of the business community, with claims that the requirement would prove a competitive disadvantage and be an added hardship to enforce. A group of Minneapolis restaurant and bar owners filed a lawsuit challenging Frey's order, but a judge ruled in favor of the city, saying the businesses could not prove that the vaccine requirement harmed sales more than the virus itself and cold weather.

"Once the vaccine mandate is officially lifted, it's going to be more important than ever to support St. Paul restaurants," B Kyle, president and CEO of the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. "The pandemic isn't over, businesses are still facing supply-chain issues and worker shortages. Valentine's Day weekend is a great time to show all of our businesses a little extra love."

The mayors said the city's focus was on indoor dining because people would likely be removing masks to eat and drink and because the cities already license many of those locations. In St. Paul, only about one-third of restaurants — those that sell alcohol — are subject to the rules.

Some restaurants shut down indoor dining, offering only takeout and delivery in January as the vaccine requirement took effect and the virus caused mass staffing shortages.

Other small businesses, like the Black Hart of St. Paul, implemented their own vaccine requirements long before the mayors' orders. Wes Burdine, owner of the bar in the Midway neighborhood, started asking customers for proof of shots in September amid a rise in cases sparked by the virus' delta variant.

"I think what the mayors and our politicians have to do is be quicker and more nimble to respond to the current realities," he said. "I certainly would have loved to see this vaccine mandate back when it really would have done a lot of good in the fall."

Burdine said he was relieved to see the vaccine mandate implemented to help relieve pressure on hospitals, but he'll also be glad to see the measure lifted now that numbers are trending downward. Black Hart will keep requiring proof of vaccination on busy Friday and Saturday nights.

"What our governments need to think about is that COVID is not going away," he said. "We are going to see other spikes. How can we help our businesses out the way we did previously when we had shutdowns?"

Staff writer John Reinan contributed to this report.