April 27, 2021

Tonight will be mostly cloud, with rain showers likely and a slight chance of thunderstorms. Lows will be in the lower 30s northeast, to upper 30s to mid-40s southwest. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, with highs in the mid-60s. Get the latest on Updraft.

Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday he plans to announce another easing of COVID-19 restrictions within several days.

During a visit to a mobile vaccination site in Richfield, Walz said case numbers in Minnesota are plateauing, meaning it will soon be time to further relax restrictions.

"The moves coming now are the moves back to normal. Because you can be in restaurants, you can be in movies theaters, we have kids in school," said Walz. "We're doing most of those moves, the next moves are capacity limits coming off and some of those types of things."

Walz says the only way Minnesota will get past the pandemic is through mask wearing indoors and vaccination.

The number of active cases of COVID in the state has dropped below 15,000 for the first time since April 1. Active cases are now down by nearly a third since mid-month. New confirmed coronavirus infections also continue to fall, also down by about a third since a post-Easter peak.

Daily vaccine shots, however, have also continued a decline since mid-April and fell below 15,000 for the first time in more than a month — although data released on Tuesdays usually shows a dip from lower weekend activity. Shots peaked at nearly 90,000 a day just three weeks ago.

The state reported a dozen additional deaths in the latest data, up slightly from the recent daily average.

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