Minnesota nears 70% senior COVID-19 vaccination target

COVID-19 vaccine has been provided to 66% of senior citizens in Minnesota, bringing the state within days of reaching its 70% target to expand eligibility to people with certain high-risk health conditions and food plant workers.

Nearly 1.1 million people have received COVID-19 vaccine, which has been prioritized so far in Minnesota for health care workers, educators, long-term care facility residents and senior citizens. Nearly nine in 10 of Minnesota's 6,556 COVID-19 deaths have involved seniors, and 62% have involved residents of long-term care facilities.

The total includes six COVID-19 deaths reported Monday by the Minnesota Department of Health, which also listed 473 more infections with the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the respiratory disease. Testing has identified 490,483 such infections in Minnesota since the state confirmed its first case on March 6, 2020.

Minnesota's vaccine total includes 592,134 people who have completed their shots — either by receiving two doses of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, or a single dose of the newly available Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Vaccine progress comes amid continued declines in statewide COVID-19 activity — with the positivity rate of diagnostic testing remaining at 3.6%, below the caution threshold of 5% — but concerns about flare-ups in individual communities.

The state on Monday announced pop-up COVID-19 testing events in Chanhassen over the next two weekends, because suburban Carver County has seen an uptick in infections and the spread of a more infectious B117 variant of the virus. Some of the infections have been traced to viral spread at youth sports activities and fitness centers.

"The sooner we identify positive cases, the sooner infected people can take steps to isolate and stop the spread of the virus," said Dan Huff, assistant commissioner for the Minnesota Department of Health. "We are increasingly concerned about dramatic increases in cases, particularly in Carver County where the B117 variant has been confirmed. People can take control of this situation by getting tested, masking, and limiting social interactions."

The state has similarly set up pop-up testing in Thief River Falls March 9-11 in response to a surge of infections in Pennington County in northwestern Minnesota.

State Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm urged people to seek testing and take other steps to reduce viral spread, in part to buy time for vaccination of more vulnerable individuals.

The next priority group includes at least 28,000 people 16 or older at elevated risk of severe COVID-19 due to high-risk conditions such as sickle cell disease, Down syndrome, and lung and heart conditions requiring supplemental oxygen. People who are being treated for cancer or who have weakened immune systems following organ transplants also qualify.

This group also includes roughly 44,000 food plant workers, selected in part to preserve the food supply during the pandemic. Nobles County had the nation's highest rate of new COVID-19 cases last spring during an outbreak at the JBS pork plant in Worthington, which was shut down for two weeks.

The state hadn't expected to reach this next priority group until April, but its timetable hadn't factored in the addition of the J & J vaccine.

Malcolm had said last month that "it's only going to take us a matter of weeks to get through vaccinating these groups ... while we continue to vaccinate seniors as well."

The next priority group after that is much larger — more than 1.7 million people. It includes adults with certain qualifying chronic health conditions such as diabetes and a broader range of essential front-line workers, including airport security, food servers, police officers, mail carriers and bus drivers.

Minnesota was among eight states that initially prioritized K-12 and child care educators for vaccination as part of a strategy to hasten the reopening of schools.

Gov. Tim Walz this weekend reported that 55% of the state's K-12 and child-care educators had received vaccine. On Monday, he reported that more than 90% of school districts and charter schools had maintained or returned to some form of in-person learning amid the pandemic.

Jeremy Olson • 612-673-7744