Credit: Office of the Governor, YouTube
Governor Tim Walz is expected to announce the expansion of Minnesota’s vaccination program during a news conference on Tuesday morning.
The governor will speak at 9:30 am, discussing “next steps in the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in Minnesota” alongside health commissioner Jan Malcolm.
Walz had previously said that Minnesota would move on to its next vaccination phase as soon as the state reached 70% of those over 65 receiving at least one dose of the vaccine.
On Saturday, 66% of Minnesota’s 65 and older had received a dose of the Moderna or Pfizer two-dose vaccines, or the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine.
Given the rate of acceleration in vaccine administration in recent weeks, as the federal government obtained a greater supply of vaccines, it is possible that the figure of 70% has already been reached.
If that is the case, it may take a few days for vaccines to become available for the next installment of priority Minnesotans, including those with certain chronic health conditions, and certain essential workers, including those in the meat packaging industry who are in higher COVID-19 contracting risk.
Below is the implementation plan released by the governor a few weeks ago, when it was predicted that Minnesota would reach 70% of those over 65 by the end of March.
Since this was released, some changes have been made, including the addition of Type 1 Diabetes, ALS and cystic fibrosis to the list of “high-risk health conditions” in “Early Spring”, while some health and justice system workers workers not covered by the previous release have been added to the “targeted essential workers” section.
Minnesota State