Older Minnesotans will have more choices to get the vaccine two weeks after it was first made available at new state-run clinics. Two of the clinics – including one in Duluth – will be expanded to be able to continue continuously, government Tim Walz announced on Monday, February 1, while the other will reopen for opening admissions next week.
“We have long planned for most Minnesotans to be vaccinated in the places where they are used to getting their health care – places like smaller clinics, local hospitals and pharmacies in the community,” the governor said in a statement. “But not everyone has a doctor or pharmacy that they are familiar with. Therefore, we have built a reliable network of different ways Minnesotans can access the vaccine. After careful planning, we are now activating the network to provide Minnesotans options near the house. ‘
The governor’s announcement comes at the beginning of the first week in which Minnesota will receive additional doses of the vaccine from the federal government. An additional 11,000 doses would be sent to the state in addition to the 60,000 it normally sent each week under a plan to increase the vaccine supply previously announced by President Joe Biden’s government.
Minnesotans 65 and older will be able to find near-vaccine providers using an improved Health Department Web site Monday. According to Walz’s office, more than 35,000 doses will be set aside for the new trial this week.
Childcare workers, school teachers and school staff – who are also served by the state-run clinics launched two weeks ago – who have not yet received their vaccinations will be eligible to do so at a larger clinic located in Minneapolis has risen. operate on a more permanent basis than the clinic that previously opened there. According to Walz’s office, they will also need to get the vaccine at 35 provincial and local health clinics across Minnesota, as well as pharmacies in Brainerd, St. Louis. Cloud and Rochester who will receive it.
Education and child care workers will be notified by their respective employers when they can get the vaccine.
A second large-scale vaccination clinic similar to the one in Minneapolis will also be launched in Duluth. Elderly people also still have access to the Duluth and Minneapolis clinics, and the opening of another clinic in southern Minnesota is being investigated for next week.
Jan Malcolm, commissioner of the state health department, said on Monday that additional semi-permanent clinics are likely to open in the near future. According to her, during the opening of the clinics, Minnesota applied lessons they had learned over the past two weeks in which the concept of the community clinic was tested.
“We need to be ready to vaccinate Minnesotans in a large-scale, efficient, rapid way when we start getting more vaccines from the federal government,” Malcolm said in a press release.
Elderly residents who pre-registered for appointments at community vaccine clinics held last week but did not receive them will, according to them, have the opportunity to be re-selected to make an appointment for a vaccine on our site this week Minneapolis or Duluth locations. website of the Department of State Health. More than 220,000 people aged 65 and over pre-registered last week via the Department of Health and the telephone line.
The community clinics in Blaine, Brooklyn Center, Fergus Falls, Marshall, Mountain Iron, North Mankato, Rochester, St. Cloud, St. However, Paul and Thief River Falls will only reopen next week. They will remain open for two weeks from next Thursday, February 11, to administer shots of the vaccine in the second round, two doses of which are required for maximum effectiveness, according to the Department of Health website.
The plan for now is for people to return to the same community clinics where they received their initial doses for their follow-up shots.
Two weeks ago, the vaccination efforts during the coronavirus pandemic mostly focused on health workers and residents or patients in long-term care, the latter of which is particularly at risk of dying from COVID-19.
On Monday, state health officials reported that nearly 560,000 doses of the vaccine had been administered so far. About 111,000 people in Minnesota received the two required doses of the vaccine, while another 418,299 received at least one shot.
An additional 727 cases of COVID-19 were reported Monday in Minnesota. Two additional deaths were also reported, both of which occurred in the Twin Cities area.
Malcolm also said Monday that Minnesota continues to test residents against COVID-19 at a more or less steady pace, and that the proportion of tests that return positive – calculated on a running average of seven days – at 4.8 % is.
About 387 people are being hospitalized for COVID-19, Malcolm said, 92 of whom are in intensive care units.
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- Ministry of Health Department of Health COVID-19 hotline: 651-201-3920.
- COFID-19 discrimination hotline: 833-454-0148
- Minnesota COVID-19 Health Website: Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Website.