We’re going to be staying home another month. Gov. Tim Walz has extended the stay-at-home order until May 4. He said he’s instructed commissioners to create standards for reopening part of the economy, with social distancing, but added: "I will not sacrifice the health of Minnesotans and the gains we've made."

The goal is to buy more time to manage COVID-19’s spread. The extended restrictions will push the coronavirus’ expected peak to mid-July, a move health care leaders support, Walz said. 

“This thing can explode overnight if you do not take the proper precautions.” Walz said Minnesotans cannot rest easy even if the state is seeing some success in fending off COVID-19. Minnesota will need at least 3,000 ICU beds now through July, and the governor said the state must stay vigilant to avoid the worst of what’s happening elsewhere. 

If you want to read the full order, get comfy. It’s 28 pages long. But not all that dense and pretty easy to find the information you need. 

The latest coronavirus statistics from Wednesday: 

• 1,154 cases via 30,753 tests

• 39 deaths

• 271 hospitalizations

• 135 remain in the hospital; 64 in intensive care

• Ages of patients requiring intensive care range from 25 to 95 years old

• 51 is the median case age

• 632 patients recovered

Grocery stores are getting back to normal inventory levels. Aside from a couple items ...  “The one area that's still a little bit tight is toilet paper,” Kowalski's chief operating officer Mike Oase said. “And cleaning products are still a little bit tight. But aside from that, things have gotten a lot better each day.” 

Nationwide, black people are getting COVID-19 and dying from it at disproportionate levels. The New York Times reports : “The coronavirus is infecting and killing black people in the United States at disproportionately high rates, according to data released by several states and big cities, highlighting what public health researchers say are entrenched inequalities in resources, health and access to care. … In Minnesota, black people have been infected with the coronavirus at rates roughly proportionate to their percentage of the state’s population.”

President Trump is doing something else behind his daily coronavirus briefings. His administration is also trying in court to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. If successful, 300,000 Minnesotans could lose health care during the COVID-19 pandemic or after it ends, as MinnPost reports. 

What have you learned from the pandemic? The coronavirus continues altering our lives. What would you do the same or differently in your home, community or work next time a pandemic like this hits? Tell us here. 

— Cody Nelson, MPR News