ROCHESTER, Minn (KTTC) – Who can use so much of the vaccine can be very important.
Here in Rochester, there are concerns about Mayo Clinic employees not coming into direct contact with COVID-19 patients, ahead of others in the prospect of the vaccine.
“We follow state and federal guidelines for who should be vaccinated. We do not deviate from guidelines,” said Dr. Abinash Virk, a specialist in infectious disease at Mayo Clinic, said.
But rumors in the Med City claim otherwise.
“I do not know exactly where the rumor is coming from,” said Dr. Virk said. “We know some of the workers who were vaccinated were vaccinated, but it was those who came on campus for other jobs.”
Mayo says it only gave the vaccine to those who fall within the state’s 1A group. This is not even the case with those in the 1A3 subcategory due to lack of supply.
“We are ready to vaccinate. We have phenomenal ability to vaccinate people in Mayo,” Virk said. “We have the capacity to vaccinate 10,000 people a week.”
In addition to the lack of doses of vaccines, things are complicated when it comes to the next group to be vaccinated, 1B.
“Yesterday, the Minnesota Department of Health recommended that we vaccinate people over the age of 65,” Virk said.
Previously, 1B only included individuals older than 75, but this is now a broader category.
Vaccination of this group has already begun, but the administration of the vaccine to all in 1A has yet to be completed.
“About 60 to 70 percent of the people we invited were vaccinated. There are a few others who are vaccinated as far as the vaccination is concerned,” Virk said. “We hope to be able to complete it in the next few weeks.”
Dr. Virk reports that only a small percentage of Mayo employees received both doses of the vaccine.
She says Mayo also follows the guidelines of the state that give the second dose, which increases the effectiveness of the vaccine from between 80 and 90 percent to more than 95 percent.