North Ramsey News

As winter approaches, some Minnesota business owners are worried about another COVID-19 shutdown, said Elliott Engen, a candidate for Minnesota House District 38.

“Businesses just took a six-month gut punch,” Engen told Metric Media. "It was a mandated gut punch.”

During the summer months, many business owners of restaurants and bars installed outdoor patio seating, which helped them get through COVID-19.

“Now Minnesotans are going back inside and we’re going to be consolidated in close areas with other,” he said. “That’s going to probably increase the COVID-19 case load again.”

However, this time, the reaction should be different than it was last spring, Engen said.

“We should be looking at a brisk mitigation approach rather than an evasion approach,” he said. “We have to make sure that the people who are most vulnerable, in our long-term care facilities, are protected. But we have to also recognize that merely existing is not living.”

Gov. Tim Walz’s approach to COVID-19 has been hurting more people than it helps, Engen said.

“While they say that a single life saved by their policy is worth it, we need to recognize that livelihoods are being shattered at the same time. Those matter as well," he said.

The Minnesotans he has talked to on the campaign trail don’t wear minding masks in public and social distancing.

“What they don’t want to be told is that for some reason, their business is not essential or that they’re going to be furloughed,” Engen said. “In the past six months, we have seen 40% of workers who make less than $40,000 a year be laid off.”

COVID-19 is a real disease and everyone should be concerned about it, Engen said.

“But that doesn’t mean we should be shutting down all economic growth,” he said.

Many businesses will not survive another shutdown, he predicted.

“They know that if there is another forced shutdown of any kind, they are in jeopardy of losing their dreams,” he said.