- Departments
- Human Services
- Public Health and Environmental Services
- Environmental Health Services
- Env Svcs COVID-19 Updates
Env Svcs COVID-19 Updates
COVID-19 Updates for Restaurants, Hotels, Pools, Food Trucks and Body Art Establishments
Please see the below information about required business closures and proper safety precautions.
General Updates
The MDH Businesses and Employers web page has been updated with several new or updated documents:
- Frequently Asked Questions about Executive Orders Related to Bars, Restaurants, and Other Places of Public Accommodation (PDF) Updated to include additional clarification for golf courses and seasonal campgrounds, updated employee screening information, and links to additional resources)
- Visitor and Employee Health Screening Checklist (PDF) A tool that businesses can use to screen individuals.
- Important reminders for senior citizens
- COVID-19 Preparedness Plan Templates & Instructions
- Mask Required Poster Sign
- Stay Safe Guidance For Businesses & Organizations
- COVID-19 Preparedness Plan
- Drinking Water
- Pools and Spas
- Lodging Establishments
- Building Water Systems
- Restaurants
- Food Trucks
- Body Art
- Haz Waste
Businesses in operation must have a COVID-19 Preparedness Plan
Your business’s COVID-19 Preparedness Plan will establish and explain the policies, practices and conditions the business will implement to meet the industry guidance for your business type. These guidelines are based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) guidelines, federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards and applicable executive orders related to safety and health in workplaces. Your Plan should have the strong commitment of management and be developed and implemented with the participation of workers.
Your Plan will help protect your staff and patrons
Employers and employees can decrease the spread of COVID-19 and lower the impact in your workplace by communicating and implementing a COVID-19 Preparedness Plan. Effectively implemented Plans:
- Prevent and reduce transmission among employees,
- Maintain healthy business operations, and
- Maintain a healthy work environment.
Ensure your Plan meets the requirements
Employers in collaboration with employees need to consider how best to decrease the spread of COVID-19 and lower the impact in your workplace.
Assign a designated Plan administrator to ensure the Plan is evaluated, monitored, executed, and updated.
An easy way to make sure that your Plan meets the COVID-19 Preparedness Plan requirements is to use the COVID-19 Preparedness Plan Template and Industry Guidance for Safely Reopening: Restaurants & Bars document. Both of these documents can be found on the Stay Safe Minnesota Website.
The key requirements of the COVID-19 Preparedness Plan for Bars and Restaurants include, but are not limited to:
- Adopt and implement a COVID-19 Preparedness Plan
- Ensure a minimum of 6 feet of distance between parties
- Limit indoor occupant capacity to no more than 50% up to 250 persons
- Do not exceed 250 persons in outdoor spaces
- Limit service to parties of 4 persons, or 6 if part of one family unit
- Require patrons in bars to be seated
- Require reservations
- Require workers to wear face coverings at all times
- Require customers to wear face coverings at all times when indoors and when not eating or drinking.
Review your Plan regularly to ensure that it still meets the requirements. For example, you may need to update your Plan to include the new statewide masking requirements.
Make your Plan available
COVID-19 Preparedness Plans must be communicated to workers and posted at the workplace in a manner that is accessible for workers to review. The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI), in consultation with the Minnesota Department of Health, has the authority to determine whether a Plan is adequate. You are not required to submit your Plan to the state for approval.
Get help with your Plan
We encourage you to contact MNOSHA Workplace Safety Consultation for assistance or questions related to the development of a COVID-19 Preparedness Plan at 651-284-5060, 800-657-3776 or osha.consultation@state.mn.us.
Pools and Spas
- Extended Hot Tub/Spa Closures (CDC)
- Maintaining Public Aquatic Facilities (PHTA)
- The Health and Safety Benefits of Properly Maintaining Your Pool and Hot Tub (PHTA)
- If Pools and Hot Tubs Aren’t Essential (PHTA)
- Legionellosis (Legionella) Information for Hot Tub Owners and Operators (MDH)
- Disinfection of Hot Tubs that Contain Legionella (CDC)
- Re-opening of Public Pools & Aquatic Facilities
- COVID-19 Preparedness Plan Templates & Instructions
Legionella Concerns
Food, pools and lodging establishments may be closed or have low occupancy due to COVID-19. Stagnant or standing water in plumbing systems can cause conditions that increase the risk of water-borne diseases such as Legionnaires’ disease. It is important to ensure water systems are safe to use and minimize the transmission of Legionella and other bacteria.
Information for owners and operators of establishments can be found at the websites provided below.
Food Service, Restaurants and Places of Public Accommodation
- No self serve condiments.
- Hotels are allowed open, but no continental breakfasts.
- Food Trucks may operate but follow social distancing guidelines and no self serve condiments.
- Food Delivery Safety Fact Sheet
- COVID-19 Employee Illness and Exclusion
- Industry Guidance for Safely Reopening: Restaurants & Bars
- COVID-19 Preparedness Plan template and instructions for bars, restaurants and other services
Mobile Food Units at Highway Rest Areas - MnDOT
On May 3, the Governor signed Executive Order 20-49, allowing mobile food units to operate at six designated highway rest areas. Information about this program can be found on the MnDOT and MDH websites:
Food trucks at MnDOT rest areas (MnDOT)
Interim Guidance: Mobile Food Units at Rest Areas (PDF) (MDH)
Guides to Safely Reopening Personal Care Services/Salons: https://mn.gov/deed/newscenter/covid/safework/safe-reopening/personal-care-services.jsp (available in English, Espanol, Hmoob,Somali, Vietnamese)
COVID-19 Preparedness Plan Templates & Instructions
Regulatory Relief for Certifications
Recognizing that several certification providers are not holding regularly scheduled courses due to COVID-19-related restrictions, MDH received formal approval to modify renewal timelines for Certified Food Protection Managers, Trained Pool Operators, and Lifeguards. Information about these can be found on the MDH website:
Pool Operator Training (CPO, AFO, and lifeguards)
Minnesota Certified Food Protection Manager
Links:
Anoka County:
2019 Novel Coronavirus Situation Summary
Minnesota Department of Health:
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA):
Customers Best Practices for Reusable Bags and Food Takeout Containers
Production of Hand Sanitizer for Donation or Sale
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources:
Additional golf course guidance for food and beverage service has now been added to the DNR guidance document. See section titled: Guidelines for outdoor recreational facilities:”
- EO 20-38 stipulates that outdoor recreation facilities may provide food and beverage for “off-premises consumption,” provided such offerings are consistent with Executive Order 20-63. In the context of outdoor recreation facilities, “premises” means the permanent building and any outdoor dining or patio area.
- For example, a golf course may provide food or beverage to golfers for consumption on the course during their golf round, or as take-out after their round, so long as the food or beverage is not consumed in the clubhouse or an associated outdoor seating area.
- Food or beverage carts that travel a golf course or other outdoor recreational facility may dispense packaged food and beverages so long as there are adequate provisions for employee handwashing/hand sanitizing.
- Paragraphs 2 and 4 of Executive Order 20-04 provide additional social distancing requirements for food and beverage facilities, and those requirements apply to food and beverage facilities at outdoor recreation facilities.
Centers for Disease Control:
Guidance for Environmental Health Practitioners
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources
National Environmental Health Association (NEHA):
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Resources
FDA:
Food Safety during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Guidance for Food Facility Operators during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Links to PDFs of Executive Orders
Executive Order 20-01 Declaring a Peacetime Emergency and Coordinating Minnesota’s Strategy to Protect Minnesotans from COVID-19 https://www.leg.state.mn.us/archive/execorders/20-01.pdf
Executive Order 20-74: Continuing to Safely Reopen Minnesota’s Economy and Ensure Safe NonWork Activities during the COVID-19 Peacetime Emergency https://www.leg.state.mn.us/archive/execorders/20-74.pdf
Executive Order 20-81: Requiring Minnesotans to Wear a Face Covering in Certain Settings to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 https://mn.gov/governor/assets/EO%2020-81%20Final%20Filed_tcm1055-441323.pdf
#StayHomeMN - from the Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan
#StayHomeMN Frequently Asked Questions
COVID-19 – Minnesota Department of Health