One-Third Of COVID Vaccines In Minnesota Have Been Administered So Far

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Minnesota rolled out a new vaccine data-dashboard this week. It allows people to easily see where we’re at with distribution and doses administered.

Wednesday night, it showed one out of every three vaccines allotted in the state have been given, and mostly during the work week.

WCCO has shown viewers the videos and pictures of health care workers getting the vaccine. That’s all being tracked by the state: who and when, and how many doses given.

WCCO has learned Hennepin Healthcare has administered vaccinations for 70% of current eligible employees. Allina Health says they’re roughly at two-thirds. Dr. Smyrski is part of the vaccine planning committee at Allina.

“Vaccines have not been the limiting step, we’ve been receiving ample doses,” Smyrski said.

He says they developed a strategic way to roll them out.

“It’s a calculated risk management, trying to spread that out so that if they are affected by this with serious side effects, that we reduce the impact overall,” Smyrski said.

(credit: CBS)

Providers with a deliberate distribution plan may be part of why the dashboard shows 32% of doses allotted in the state have been given. Limited space and people to administer can play a role in some cases. There’s also a lag in reporting, says Dr. Melanie Swift, who’s helping lead Mayo Clinic’s plan.

“It will all catch up, but we will always have more out there then that’s shown as being delivered than we will have administered,” Swift said.

Mayo created its plan months in advance, and the healthcare system has vaccinated 45% of the roughly 47,000 employees in Minnesota. Dr. Swift says they’re working through their allotment almost immediately. They have the capacity to administer 10,000 doses per week.

“We could give more vaccine if we had more to give. So far our appointments are full and our healthcare workers really want to get vaccinated when they can,” Swift said.

The dashboard shows the majority of vaccinations are happening Monday through Friday. The Minnesota Department of Health would like providers to administer them seven days a week. Providers WCCO spoke with said they’re accomplishing what they need to during the weekdays. Click here to look at MDH’s dashboard.