How long will it take to vaccinate all Olmsted County residents?

“I hope the allocation of vaccines will increase in the near future,” Graham Briggs, director of public health in Olmsted County, told state commissioners Tuesday.

About 12% of the country’s residents have been vaccinated in recent weeks, focusing on essential health care staff and long-term care facilities.

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The province has 18,330 people who received at least one dose of vaccine, and 2,770 who received both doses, according to the Minnesota Department of Health website.

“It’s starting to be a very large number,” Briggs said, adding that an increase to 20,000 doses per week could mean a complete vaccination in the country within two months.

The hopeful eye for a potential increase in distribution comes as new COVID cases in Olmsted County continue to trend downwards to a peak in November and a bull after the holidays.

The province reached 10,000 confirmed cases last week and reached a report of 10,484 on Tuesday. This means that about 6.6% of the population has a confirmed case of the virus, which is lower than the 7.9% condition.

On Tuesday, 393 active cases were reported in the country, with the COVID-related death toll reaching 75.

Twenty-six provincial residents remained in the hospital on Tuesday with COVID, of which eight require intensive care beds.

Briggs said the numbers indicate the importance of continuing with the vaccination.

He said the top priority group should be wrapped up in the province this week as the state focuses on the second tier, which includes healthcare workers with direct patient contact at medical facilities and people in their lives.

Afterwards, Briggs said provincial staff are likely to become more involved at the third level, including dentists, school nurses and domestic workers.

He said vaccines could reach the third group within two weeks, and it would take another two weeks to offer the estimated 3,500 residents a first dose.

Briggs said the state’s effort to use Rochester for one of the nine pilot vaccination programs to test mass vaccinations is likely to boost the number of residents vaccinated, but the distribution remains limited to the available doses.

Land commissioners said much of the distribution remains out of land control.

“I ask that people be patient,” said Commissioner Gregg Wright.