• Ecolab has contributed free gallons of bleach to the community! One venue is the iHelpMarket, 100% free grocery store. Open Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-4pm, located in the North End of St. Paul.

• Eastbound Highway 5 (to St. Paul) will reopen to traffic.
• Westbound Highway 5 will close to traffic between the Highway 5/62/55 interchange and 494 through the fall.
• Eastbound 494 between Highway 5 and 35E is anticipated to fully close to traffic for pavement work on the following weekends (Friday evening through early Monday morning): August 14-17 and August 21-24

• EO 20-82 issued Thurs, July 30: authorizing and requiring Commissioner of Education to require “safe and effective learning environment for 2020-21 school year
• EO 20-81 issued Wed, July 22: requiring Minnesotans to wear face coverings to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
• EO 20-80 issued Fri, July 17: extending the relief of motor carriers and drivers

• Testing volume continues to grow. Case growth rate has fallen from prior week.
• 7-day positivity rate is now at 5.4%, up from 5.2% last week (and represents data through end of month July). 
• Health officials provide updated visitation guidance for long term care facilities

• Case growth is showing in outstate counties: McCloud, St. Lewis, Blue Earth
• 7-day average case growth has dropped to 8.7, down from 10% 1 week ago.
• Median age remains at 36.0 years old.
• 7-day average positivity rate remains at 5.3%. Up from 4.9% 1 week ago.
• Growth rate in total testing volume is 9.5%, continues to outpace growth of new cases which is 8.7% week to week.
• Notes on LTC facilities:  
• We are seeing rising rates in the community, including LTC. 
• Originally, majority of cases had been in residents. Since June, staff have been the majority of cases in LTC facilities.
• Data on all cases in last few months shows increasing trend of large gatherings being reported, including church, sporting events, concerts, weddings, family gatherings.
• Staff testing positive are contracting largely through community, not residents.

• Mask distribution: still need masks? Contact a chamber near you; most of us have a limited number still available. Coordination on-site pick-up at SPACC with staci@saintpaulchamber.com.

• Minnesota cities, counties scramble to keep businesses afloat by dishing out CARES Act grants From the Pioneer Press, Aug 9: Here’s a rundown of what some of the cities and counties are offering; contact them for more information, including application deadlines. Information can generally be found on the cities’ websites.

• US tops 5 million confirmed virus cases, to Europe’s alarm From the Pioneer Press, Aug 9: ROME — With confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. hitting 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe.

• Twin Cities banks assess end of PPP loans and start of forgiveness From the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Aug 7: The time to get a loan Paycheck Protection Program through the U.S. Small Business Administration ends on Friday at 11:59 p.m. eastern standard time. Roughly $128 billion remains available but demand has slowed to a trickle. On Monday, the SBA will begin accepting applications for forgiveness. Banks in the Twin Cities that participated in the program shared their thoughts on how it's working, what questions remain and what clients need to know about the forgiveness. Also, the program went through multiple changes and lenders are expecting Congress to tweak it even more.

• Ramsey County is providing dislocated worker resources to support employees who are out of work at no fault of their own. Would be particularly good for businesses who have been impacted by civil unrest.

• Logistics companies add jobs during Covid-19  From the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Aug 7: Despite worries of lost business at the start of Covid-19, leaders of several logistics companies in the Twin Cities said they’ve made it this far without job losses.

• TCF Bank, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo make plans to reopen branches damaged during unrest From the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Aug 6: The riots that followed George Floyd's death in police custody left more than a dozen bank branches in Minneapolis and St. Paul damaged or destroyed. Some banks have already reopened those branches or are planning to. Others aren't sure when the sites will return. 

• Twin Cities Industrial Market Sees A Pause, But Remains Solid From Twin Cities Business, Aug 6: The Covid-19 has been disastrous for retail real estate and brought clouds of uncertainty to the office market. But the industrial property sector remains largely healthy.

• On Friday, Governor Walz issued a proclamation calling for a third Special Session to begin on Wednesday, August 12, in order to extend the Peacetime Emergency powers that have been in place since mid-March. The House and Senate likely will only take up the extension of the Peacetime Emergency.

• From Lockridge Grindal Nauen, 8/10: Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, along with Representatives Angie Craig, Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar, and Tom Emmer, announced last week that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency a grant of $6,972,739 to help low-income families and other vulnerable citizens, including those experiencing homelessness. The grant funding from HUD will provide project-based rental assistance funding to the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency. The grant is awarded through a HUD program that supports eligible state housing finance agencies for extremely low-income persons with disabilities aged 18-61 and for agencies that have developed methods for identifying, referring, and conducting outreach to target populations with extremely low-incomes and disabilities requiring long-term services and support

• On Saturday, President Trump took executive action in response to what he said was a lack of Congressional progress in the next round of pandemic relief. Read a summary of the actions from the White House. Note that the unemployment assistance order requires State of Minnesota action The various executive actions surrounded:
• Payroll taxes
• Unemployment assistance
• Eviction moratoriums
• Student loans

• Willing to contact your members of Congress in support of limited liability protections and the expansion of PPP to all non-profits in a Phase Four pandemic response bill?  Among the things you can do to help is share the following two letter writing tools with your members and encourage them to contact their members of Congress:
• Calling on Congress to Provide Temporary, Targeted Liability Protection
• Calling on Congress to Provide PPP Loan Access to C6 Nonprofits 

• See available SBA COVID-19 training here.

• For more on SBA programs for the coronavirus, please visit www.sba.gov/coronavirus.
• Minnesota Chamber’s COVID-19 Business Toolkit has a dedicated section for employment guidance that can help.