Gov. Tim Walz on Monday closed all Minnesota restaurants and bars to the public dine-in and drink service in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Delivery and carry-out food orders are still allowed.

Also closed: movie theaters, fitness clubs, gyms, cafes, bowling alleys, bingo halls, hookah bars, arcades, and country clubs — to name a few of a wide range of closures of businesses where people gather and can spread germs.

“We’re seeing people still congregate in large numbers,” Walz said, emphasizing that Minnesota is entering a crucial window for slowing the spread of COVID-19. “We need to stop congregating.”

The order goes into effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday and extends to 5 p.m. March 27 — although Walz said he expects he will likely order the closures to last beyond that.

In addition, Walz signed a separate order intended to help the ranks of workers likely to become unemployed as a result of the crushing blow the pandemic and its responses are likely to have on employers. Hundreds of thousands of workers are affected, said Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove.

People who can’t work because of COVID-19 won’t have to wait a week to be eligible for unemployment benefits.

It will be the single largest request of unemployment insurance in Minnesota’s history and the biggest one-day influx they’ve ever attempted to process, Walz said. People are being asked to go to uimn.org to sign up and not overwhelm the phone lines by calling.

“We’re not coming in front of you making a closure without having the backstops in place to try and ease this,” Walz said. “It will not make you whole, but our intention is to try and make sure that it does not destroy your family or wellbeing.”

As for restaurants and bars, delivery and carry-out food orders will be allowed. Grocery stores and pharmacies are unaffected, and Walz encouraged them to stay open as “critical infrastructure … to make sure that people are able to get what they need.”

The announcement comes a day after Walz announced all public schools must close by Wednesday for a week and a half, and was made on the eve of anticipated St. Patrick’s Day revelry.

A ‘NEW NORMAL’

The specter of green-beer-drinking throngs — scenes that came to fruition in various cities across the nation — had public health officials shuddering as COVID-19 illnesses are now spreading among the community in Minnesota, and young adults are making up a notable portion of new cases.

The news is the latest escalation in a constantly escalating series of measures intended to slow the spread of the constantly spreading virus. It came hours after federal officials Monday advised against any gatherings larger than 10 people.

“This is the new normal,” Walz said, emphasizing that more restrictions on businesses and the public are likely to come.

Peppered with questions about businesses apparently not in the order — from hair salons to shopping malls — Walz emphasized that the order is hardly a green light for all activities and businesses not specifically excluded — and everyone should use their common sense when it comes to observing social distancing.

“If it seems like it’s probably not a good idea, it’s probably not a good idea,” he said.

While Minnesota’s total number of people infected had grown to 54 by Monday afternoon, medical experts tracking the pandemic’s spread said they believe that for every known case, there are likely 5 to 10 more, likely milder, cases that are going undetected.

In making the announcement — which Walz said Sunday he was contemplating — Minnesota joins a host of other states, including Illinois and Ohio, in temporarily banning dining out.

Walz was joined by celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern, a Minnesota resident who wore a Gophers jersey and gave the measure his full endorsement.

“These closures are needed to protect public health,” he said, adding later: “Nobody wants to close, but we know that we must.”

MANY BARS, EATERIES WERE PREPARING

Many business owners were anticipating the action.

The Hope Breakfast Bar in St. Paul has transitioned from being a restaurant to a community kitchen, serving meals to those in need. Joe Giambruno, co-owner of Bad Weather Brewing in St. Paul, said the majority of his company revenue comes from taproom sales.

“It’s the smart thing to do,” he said before the governor’s announcement. “But then you struggle with, there’s all these workers — brewers, chefs, cooks — who will be out of work. It’s tough when you realize how fragile this whole thing is.”

The change in unemployment benefits is also for people who are quarantined or self-isolated as a result of coronavirus. And parents can apply if they had to quit their job due to lack of child care because they couldn’t find alternative care and their employer wouldn’t accommodate them.

Like governors of other states, Walz has the authority to make such unilateral decisions over private businesses under sweeping emergency powers that many states have to allow for circumstances such as these. Health officials and doctors are pointing to countries like Italy, whose sophisticated health care system has become overwhelmed, leading to a national lockdown, in arguing that the U.S. is not overreacting.

MAKING SMART DECISIONS

The strategy is for people, who have no known immunity to the coronavirus, to distance themselves from each other. This will deprive the germ of the ability to spread. The virus spreads through droplets in coughs and sneezes, and the germs can survive on surfaces, such as bar counters, dinner tables and menus.

While spread is still inevitable, slowing that spread is crucial, they say, because a sudden explosion in cases would overwhelm hospitals and lead to more people dying that otherwise could be saved.

While most people who become sick will be able to stay at home and recover from the dry cough and fever that are most typical, perhaps 15 percent of those infected will need medical attention, usually from developing breathing problems from pneumonia. A subset of those — especially the elderly and those with weakened immune systems — will suffer serious breathing problems and require intensive care. As infectious disease experts have cautioned for decades, no place in America, or probably the world, has the intensive care capacity to handle the onslaught of a high percentage of the population getting sick at once.

Experts advise anyone who is sick — with anything — to stay home. Even known infectious diseases like the flu, which is going around right now, must be quelled as much as possible because those diseases also require the same medical services.

When asked whether people should go out for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, here’s what Dr. Alison Peterson, vice president of Medical Affairs at United Hospital in St. Paul, said:

“The failure of people to listen and to follow directions can have personal health consequences, should they be exposed, and they can therefore put their friends and their community at risk. We are doing everything we can to flatten the curve so we do not overwhelm our health resources within our communities.”

Jess Fleming and Frederick Melo contributed to this report.