Walz, State Health Leaders Stress Need for More COVID-19 Vaccines

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(KNSI) – “If we had vaccine [at] full supply at HealthPartners, we could offer more vaccinations in a single day than our current allocation allows us to offer in a single week.”

CEO and president of Bloomington-based HealthPartners Andrea Walsh said this statement Monday, underscoring Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s push for the state to receive more COVID-19 vaccines from the federal government.

Walz announced the launch of nine COVID-19 vaccination sites Monday that will focus on getting doses to people 65 and older, preK-12 teachers, school staff and child care workers. As the state broadens who can get the vaccine — and continues to administer doses to healthcare workers and long-term care residents and staff — Minnesota’s federal allocation of vaccines hasn’t grown to meet the effort.

“We’re receiving about 60,000 doses a week. That’s it,” Walz said, adding that many more Minnesotans than that will want to get the vaccine this week as that eligibility opens up. The 60,000 number is what Walsh said HealthPartners’ network can administer in a day.

The bottom line from Walz and other health leaders: The state can get COVID-19 shots into arms quickly with its existing infrastructure. All it needs is more vaccines.

Right now, Minnesota is on track to at least schedule first doses for all people in priority phase 1A by the end of the month. State infectious disease director says the first tier of three within 1A (acute care health professionals and skilled nursing facility residents and staff) is complete. The second and third tiers of vaccination are ongoing.

“However, this addition means that that may take a little bit longer because we are putting some of the vaccine that would have exclusively been for phase 1A, we’re expanding that to other populations,” Ehresmann said. “But we are on track. … We are where we thought we would be.”

Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said out of this week’s 60,000-dose vaccine allotment, the state will split 12,000 doses between the state’s nine new vaccination sites, which will launch Thursday on an appointment-only basis.

President-elect Joe Biden assumes office this week and has promised to administer 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in his first 100 days in office. When asked if this goal is realistic, Walz said it is. In fact, Walz said he hopes Biden’s team is “lowballing” that number — that more than 100 million people will be vaccinated in those 100 days.

“When a president of the United States decides to make this the top priority, as it should have been last March … they can move mountains. I’m hopeful with AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, the use, potentially, of the Defense Production Act, and I think President-elect Biden understands this,” Walz said, referencing other companies with COVID-19 vaccine candidates that could receive approval later this year. “He said it. He better deliver.”

According to the MDH’s latest data, more than 194,000 Minnesotans have received at least their first dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. More than 38,000 people have completed the two-shot series.