Rochester among Minnesota cities piloting a program to expand access to vaccines

Rochester is among the nine Minnesota cities where state and local officials plan to set up pilot sites for an expanded roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines.

The pilot program, introduced Monday by Gov. Tim Walz, will allow for Minnesotans ages 65 and up to begin making appointments to receive the vaccine. The state is also working with local school districts to get the vaccine to preK-12 educators, school staff, and child care workers.

The announcement of the pilot program marks the first transition to the so-called ‘1B’ priority group. Up until this point, only health care workers or long-term care staff and residents had been eligible for the vaccine.

In a memo to staff, Rochester Public Schools said it has received 42 vaccines, which it will begin administering on January 21 at its designated site, Willow Creek Middle School. The district, however, acknowledged “this is not an acceptable rate for educators to be receiving the vaccine.”

State officials urge patience

Beginning Tuesday at noon, individuals over the age of 65 can begin making appointments to receive their first dose of the vaccine.

School and child care workers, meanwhile, do not need to sign up — instead, they will receive information about scheduling an appointment from their employers, health officials said.

In either case, though, health officials are cautioning the public to be patient as the state awaits additional shipments of the vaccine from the federal government. As we reported here last week, the state has been receiving sporadic amounts of the vaccine each week — leaving health officials to make swift decisions on how to distribute the doses.

“The federal government has been giving mixed messages on vaccine availability and guidance, and we need them to step up and get more vaccine to the state,” said Walz. “When they do, we will be ready. The end of this pandemic is closer today than it was yesterday.”

Currently, Minnesota is receiving about 60,000 vaccine doses per week — a pace that, if continued, would mean the state would need four and a half months to get through all of the newly-eligible individuals.

The hope, however, is that the distribution of vaccines will pick up in the coming months — and when it does, Minnesota will have a head start on building a “broad and multi-channel vaccine distribution system” with local public health, hospital, and pharmacy partners.

“Not every Minnesotan can get the vaccine right now, but we will be ready to give a shot to everyone who needs one once we have more doses on hand,” said Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm.

The state is still drawing up additional guidelines on who else — in addition to educators and individuals 65 and over — will be included in phase 1B. Those details are expected to made available in the coming weeks. Likely candidates are those who work in frontline industries, along with individuals with underlying health conditions.

Latest vaccine numbers

As the pilot program begins to get off the ground, efforts will continue to get the vaccine to hospital workers, as well as long-term care residents and staff. Health officials said the state remains on pace to offer at least the first doses of the vaccine to all individuals in the 1A group by the end of January.

The Minnesota Department of Health reported Monday that 194,462 people, or 3.5 percent of the state population, have received the first doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines; 38,025 have received two doses.

Here in Olmsted County, the latest numbers show that 18,277 Olmsted residents have received one dose, while 2,771 have completed the series.

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

Cover photo licensed via Getty