Minneapolis Reopens Counter Service At Bars and Restaurants

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Mayor Jacob Frey announced he was rolling back the ban on counter service at bars and restaurants in Minneapolis, citing the city’s declining coronavirus infection rate, according to a report from KMSP.

The repeal is effective immediately. The ban had been in place since last summer amid a spike in COVID-19 cases that were linked back to food and drink establishments that served customers in their bar areas, the news stations reported.

Residents have been allowed back to bars and restaurants since January, and none of the establishments have experienced a COVID-19 outbreak in the past week, according to KMSP.

Frey said on Thursday he was prompted to repeal the ban as the city’s handling of the pandemic has been trending in the right direction with daily case numbers, hospitalizations and the positivity rate going in a downward trend. He called the move “another small pivot toward normalcy,” according to the news station.

Minneapolis' current total case count is 32,367 people infected with COVID-19 and 383 have died as a result of the pandemic, according to the Hennepin County Public Health. The infection rate is 17.7 people out of 10,000 resident.