Latest on COVID-19 in MN: New community vaccination site opens Monday

3 things to know:

• About 10 percent of Minnesota residents received at least one dose of vaccine.

• The community’s second vaccination site opens Monday.

• Key metrics for COVID-19 keeping steady or falling slowly.

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COVID-19 vaccination efforts in Minnesota will increase this week, with a community vaccination site opening in Duluth on Monday and another scheduled to open in southern Minnesota in the coming days.

They will join an existing community in Minneapolis, when the state enters the second week of February with about 10 percent of Minnesota residents having received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The state reached that milestone in the Minnesota Department of Health’s Sunday update, reflecting data released on Friday. That is just over 554,000 people. About 2.8 percent of Minnesota residents – almost 157,000 people – received both doses to complete the vaccination.

And the state is slowly making progress in vaccinating people 65 and older. Just over 27 percent of that age group in Minnesota has already received at least one dose of the vaccine.

But the pace of vaccinations remains a source of frustration, and state officials say they need more doses of vaccine to meet demand. Minnesota took a step back last week, with fewer vaccinations reported than the week before.

On average over the past week, Minnesota is now averaging about 25,800 doses administered per day. That’s less than more than 31,000 a day, a week ago.

Here are the current ones from Minnesota COVID-19 Statistics:

• 6,299 deaths (10 new)

• 468,118 positive cases (914 new), 453,225 without isolation (97 percent)

• 6.8 million tests, 3.3 million tested Minnesotans (about 58 percent of the population)

• 10 percent of Minnesotans vaccinated with at least one dose

COVID-19 metrics continue to show Minnesota maintaining itself, with levels of new cases, hospital admissions and deaths at their lowest point since last fall.

Ten recently reported deaths increased Minnesota’s death toll to 6,299 on Sunday. Among those who died, about 63 percent lived in long-term care facilities or care facilities; most had latent health problems.

State officials continue to warn that encouraging trends are still tenuous, looking at new strains of the virus arriving in the United States, including two cases of the Brazilian strain and 16 of the UK variant in Minnesota.

And they encouraged people to avoid large gatherings to attend the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Health officials will be on the lookout for any signs of an increase in the number of cases linked to variants of the virus – and social gatherings – in the coming weeks.

Cases spread across age groups, regions

People in their 20s still make up the age group with the highest number of confirmed cases in the state – almost 89,000 since the start of the pandemic, including almost 47,000 among people aged 20 to 24.

The number of school-age youth confirmed with the disease has also grown, with more than 36,000 cases in total between 15 and 19 years since the pandemic began.

Although they are less likely to experience the worst effects of the disease and end up hospitalized, experts fear that young people and young adults will spread the disease unknowingly to older relatives and members of other vulnerable populations.

People can have the coronavirus and spread COVID-19 when they have no symptoms.

The number of cases is decreasing in all regions of the state after a blip in late December, early January.

The number of cases is even heavier among people of color

In Minnesota and across the country, COVID-19 hit communities of color disproportionately in cases and deaths. This was especially true for Minnesota residents during much of the pandemic.

Even with the count of new cases falling since the peaks of late November, early December, the data show that people of color remain the hardest hit.

Mistrust in the government, coupled with deep-seated health and economic disparities, has hampered efforts to increase testing among communities of color, officials say, especially among unauthorized immigrants who fear that their personal information may be used to deport them.

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COVID-19 in Minnesota

The data in these charts are based on the Minnesota Department of Health cumulative totals released daily at 11 am You can find more detailed statistics on COVID-19 at Department of Health website.

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Latest developments

The state’s second community vaccination site opens Monday in Duluth, with 1,500 people aged 65 and over expected to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The people selected for consultations were chosen at random from the more than 225,000 people who registered in the state last month to have a chance to be selected.

The Duluth Entertainment Convention Center website joins another website that opened last week at the Minneapolis Convention Center. State officials say they plan to open a third location this week in southern Minnesota.

Although the majority of Minnesota seniors are vaccinated through their health care providers in hospitals, clinics or pharmacies, state officials said these community sites are needed to reach people who have not established relationships with providers.

Large-scale vaccination sites replace nine pilot clinics that the state set up last month to administer vaccines to people age 65 and older who previously registered with the state’s lottery system.

For those who received the first doses at one of the pilot sites, they will be contacted to schedule an appointment for the second injection.

Others who have registered and who have not yet been contacted will continue to have the chance to be selected for consultation as more doses of the vaccine become available.

“We greatly appreciate Minnesotans’ continued patience as we work on our pilot program,” said Jason Metsa of the state’s emergency operations center.

State officials say 6,000 doses have so far been distributed to the locations of the Community Vaccination Program in Minneapolis and Duluth.

Vault Health, which runs several saliva testing sites across the state, also manages vaccination sites.

At the Duluth site, rows of tables have been set up, where nurses will administer the injections to people with consultations. Behind these tables, people will sit in rows of socially distant chairs after receiving their photos. Shawn Baxley of Vault Health says people should stay at least 15 minutes for observation.

“We have a medical team along with several advanced practitioners, such as nurses,” said Baxley. “Each person who receives an injection will have an individual meeting with one of those doctors, where they can ask questions.”

Although people from all over Minnesota were eligible to enter the lottery, it is unclear exactly how far people will be traveling to Duluth, in sub-zero temperatures. Minnesota hospitals recently criticized the state’s lottery system for people 65 and older, saying the sites in Duluth and Minneapolis are out of reach for people living in the western part of the state.

Metsa, with the state’s emergency operations center, said the state will continue to work with hospitals and other partners to overcome the pandemic. He said the state will not “leave a stone unturned” when it comes to distributing the vaccine as soon as possible.

– Dan Kraker | MPR News

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Top headlines

Minnesota hospitals say the state’s vaccine distribution is at an ‘unsustainable crossroads’: In a letter to the Minnesota Department of Health, a coalition of Minnesota hospitals said the state’s vaccine delivery system is unfair, leaving some clinics and hospitals without doses to give older, vulnerable patients.