All remaining Olmsted County K-12 educators and child care workers waiting to receive the vaccine should have the chance to be inoculated in the coming days, public health officials reported Tuesday.

“We believe, based on the doses that we have been allocated this week, that Public Health is ready to complete offering the vaccine to all child care and education staff in the county by the end of this week,” said Public Health Director Graham Briggs, in a presentation to the Olmsted County Board.

Briggs estimated that about 4,000 doses of vaccine will be available to the group this week. The administration of Covid-19 vaccine shots to teachers comes at a critical point for Rochester Public Schools, which this week began welcoming back elementary students for full in-person instruction. Secondary students are slated to return to the classroom on April 5.

Moving forward, Briggs said plans are being put in place to begin the next phases in the vaccination rollout. The county, he said, is nearing the 70 percent threshold for individuals 65+ (now at 60 percent) that would allow it to begin offering the vaccine to residents with certain high-risk conditions, such as individuals in active cancer treatment as well as those with oxygen-dependent chronic lung and heart conditions. Workers in food processing are also eligible in the next phase of vaccine distribution.

(All phase 1A patient-facing health care workers and long-term care residents have already been offered the the vaccine, though Briggs noted that a small number of individuals in the group are still trickling in.)

Graphic via Minnesota Department of Health

Overall, 43,190 Olmsted County residents have received at least one shot in the arm, good for 27.9 percent of the population. About 31,350 people — or 20.2 percent of the county — has been administered both doses. Both are well above the state totals of 16.2 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively.

With the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine recently receiving emergency use authorization from the FDA, Briggs said his department — with the help of OMC, Mayo and others — is prepared to ramp up its efforts.

Briggs described the vaccine — the third to reach the market in the U.S. — as a “game changer,” noting the county is equipped to begin getting the shots in the arms of residents “very quickly.” Johnson & Johnson, with the help of rival Merck, has set a goal of delivering 100 million doses by June.

“Our capacity in Olmsted County — between Olmsted Medical Center, community health services, Mayo and the health department — is in the tens of thousands that we could do a week,” said Briggs.

As the vaccine rollout progresses, the number of Covid cases in Olmsted County continues to decline to levels not seen in months. The county recorded just nine new cases on Monday as the percent-positive rate dropped below 5 percent for the first time since before the winter spike.

Daily hospitalizations have also dropped below 10, while for the first time in recent memory there are zero Covid patients in the ICU.

Despite the optimism, however, Briggs suggested that now was not the time for the public to take their foot off the gas in terms of adhering to public health guidelines, such as social distancing and mask wearing.

There has been a slight uptick nationwide in cases, including in bordering Iowa. Briggs described the trend as something worth keeping an eye one, though he said there was no sign Olmsted County will follow suit.

“I am a little bit concerned about it,” he said, “but the data that we see specific to Olmsted residents at this point is showing everything going in the right direction for us.”

Sean Baker is a Rochester journalist and the founder of Med City Beat.

Cover photo courtesy Mayo Clinic News Network