Featured photo: First vaccines administered at Sanford Bemidji.
The Minnesota Department of Health issued new guidelines on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
“We are approaching the end of our earliest stages of the vaccine rollout, and we want to make sure all vaccines in the state are getting into arms as quickly as possible,” MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm said.
“The state is making sure that providers have nothing holding them back from immediately using any and all vaccine they have available. That said, the reality is that we have far more Minnesotans wanting the vaccine than we have doses available from the federal government. We are ready to get more vaccines out very quickly, but now we desperately need the federal government to step up and provide us with more vaccine.”
According to a release, hospitals, health care systems and vaccination partners can begin vaccinating broader categories of Minnesotans, including those 65 or older.
The announcement is to ensure all available doses are used as quickly as possible.
“It will be some time before the federal government provides our state with enough vaccine to cover all those currently eligible,” Commissioner Malcolm said.
“Minnesota is ready to move on anything we get immediately, and we are working quickly to create new options for Minnesotans to schedule a vaccine. We’ll be sharing more details on this in the next few days.”
