Minnesota Adjusts COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment Sign-Ups, Plans Vaccination Opportunity for Twin Cities Educators

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(KNSI) – A week into Minnesota’s effort to vaccinate seniors, preK-12 school staff and child care workers, Governor Tim Walz is implementing changes to the pilot COVID-19 vaccination sites’ appointment application process and opening up a mass vaccination opportunity in St. Paul for teachers.

In the first week of expanded vaccine eligibility, people 65 and older, child care workers and school staff had to sign up for a vaccination appointment in a first-come, first-served basis online or over the phone starting at noon January 19th. The website logged 10,000 hits per second at its traffic peak and crashed at one point as people attempted to make appointments.

More Minnesotans were vaccinated than expected through this effort; Walz’s office reports that 13,300 people were given their first shots through the state’s nine pilot vaccination clinics, up from the state’s 12,000 doses initially made available.

To alleviate the issue of high web traffic, the state of Minnesota will offer a 24-hour window for vaccine pre-registration. Beginning at 5 a.m. Tuesday, eligible Minnesotans can pre-register online for an appointment. They can also call 833-431-2053 between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday to pre-register. When the pre-registration period ends at 5 a.m. Wednesday, the system will randomly select applicants for the approximately 8,000 doses available through the pilot clinics this week. Those selected will be notified Wednesday to finalize their appointments.

“This is about having the infrastructure in place to be ready when the federal government finally begins to send us more vaccine,” Walz said. “Every shot in the arm is another step toward crushing COVID and ending this pandemic. And we’re going to get the vaccine we do have into arms quickly in Minnesota – whether that’s a few thousand doses or many more.”

An additional 15,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses are lined up for Twin Cities educators and child care workers through a vaccination drive at the Xcel Energy Center. Walz’s office says public, private and tribal school districts will work directly with employees to make those appointments. Child care programs will operate similarly. The drive will run Thursday through Saturday

The Xcel Energy Center and the state’s other vaccine clinic sites are not open to walk-ins.

As of Friday, according to the Minnesota Department of Health, 266,985 Minnesotans have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. More than 67,000 others have gotten both shots in the two-dose vaccine series needed for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.