SAINT PAUL, Minn. — On Monday, Governor Tim Walz hinted at a possible announcement this week that elective surgeries may resume.
"We went into April in pretty tough shape in terms of beds, things like that, if you remember the very first week of the stay-at-home order. We came out of April well-positioned. We will have ICU capacity and ventilator capacity that is, raw numbers, greater than Illinois with a population over two-and-a-half times bigger than us," he said.
This possible announcement comes as the state is reporting a new high of COVID-19 cases in Minnesota.
There are now 166 patients in intensive care, and nine more deaths announced Monday. Minnesota's death toll stands at 428.
And about 1,000 new cases were test-confirmed over the week -- bringing the total number of confirmed cases to just over 7,200.
In more than half of these cases, patients have recovered.
However, the leader of the state's largest healthcare union opposes resuming elective surgeries at this time. Jamie Gulley, President of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota thinks nurses and health professionals still don't have enough personal protective equipment to do their jobs safely.
Gulley and SEIU released the following statement in response to news that elective surgeries could soon resume:
"Minnesota is a place that prides ourselves on our world-class medical institutions, but the reality is that right now we are failing thousands of workers and residents in our nursing homes and long term care facilities as we grapple with COVID-19. There are nursing home workers in Minnesota in facilities with confirmed COVID-19 cases who are using rain ponchos and paper masks because we simply don't have enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for what we are facing.
"We've seen nursing homes and long term care facilities with dozens of deaths in the last few weeks. I worry, hearing from our members, that if we don't take drastic and immediate action, these death totals will become less of a shocking headline and more a common occurrence in the coming weeks. We should be working as a state to demand President Trump finally take action and use his power to compel companies to make the PPE our families need to be safe.
"Our Union has thousands of members furloughed right now, and we want things to get back to normal when we can, but doing so unsafely just to appease those in the healthcare industry who would put profits first is not the way to move forward. As a leader of the state's largest healthcare workers' union, I implore state leaders to focus on the crisis of lack of PPE facing nursing homes and long term care facilities (and hospital and home care workers) before we even consider these demands from the healthcare industry to restart elective surgeries."
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The state of Minnesota has set up a hotline for general questions about coronavirus at 651-201-3920 or 1-800-657-3903, available 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.