Vaccine Talking Points

February 1 Announcement

• Today, we are providing more doses to people who need the vaccine and making it easier for those people to find out where to get their shot.
• With an increased vaccine supply and after a successful two-week pilot to test the concept of community vaccination clinics, Governor Walz is building on Minnesota’s strengths and activating his all-of-the-above plan for vaccine distribution.
• We have known from the beginning most Minnesotans would end up getting vaccinated in the places they are accustomed to getting their health care – places like smaller clinics, local hospitals, and community pharmacies. But not everyone has a doctor or provider they are familiar with.
• That’s why the state spent time planning, building, and bolstering a strong, reliable, and stable network of different ways Minnesotans will ultimately access the vaccine.
• The all-of-the-above approach allows the state to sustain distribution of more capacity down the line, strengthens the proven network of local health care providers that will administer vaccines to most Minnesotans in the coming months, and cements the path forward for community vaccination sites.

• We are providing more doses than ever to our seniors. Minnesota is shipping 35,000 doses of COVID vaccine to healthcare providers and sites around the state to vaccinate seniors.
• We are meeting seniors where they are. These doses are going primarily to local clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare providers in communities around Minnesota.
• We are also connecting eligible Minnesotans to their local healthcare providers. A new online vaccine locator map will make it easier than ever to find a shot close to you. Go to https://mn.gov/covid19/vaccine/find-vaccine/ to view a map of providers near you. This map will grow as the federal government gives us more vaccine and more providers are able to administer doses.
  • More than 1,600 providers have registered to administer the vaccine once the federal government provides more doses to distribute.

• We also want to be ready to vaccinate Minnesotans in a large-scale, efficient way when we get more vaccine from the federal government in the coming months. That’s why we’re establishing permanent state-run community vaccination clinics in Duluth and Minneapolis, as well as a site in southern Minnesota that will launch next week Additional state community vaccine sites may launch in the near future.
  • The pilot program we launched last month taught us valuable lessons about how to register Minnesotans for their shot and administer them quickly and safely at these sites. Given their success and vaccine demand, we decided to move forward with the permanent vaccination sites as soon as possible.
  • To be clear, we are expanding the doses available to seniors this week and the new, large-scale permanent state sites will maintain the same level of doses for 65+ Minnesotans they have in previous weeks.
• The Minnesotans 65 and older who pre-registered for an appointment at the pilot locations but did not receive one last week are still eligible to get an appointment. This week, Minnesotans who have not been selected for a vaccine from the pre-registration list will remain on the list and continue to have the opportunity to be randomly selected to schedule an appointment at Minnesota’s COVID-19 community vaccination sites. Minnesotans on the registration list will be notified if are randomly selected to make an appointment.
• We’re also connecting educators to shots near them. Many E-12 education and childcare providers will be able to get their shots at local public health agencies and select pharmacies around the state. A state-run community vaccination site in Minneapolis will also serve metro providers and educators.
  • Employers will contact employees with vaccination opportunities.