As Minnesota Nears 1 Million COVID Vaccine Doses Administered, New Cases Drop in Nursing Homes

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(KNSI) – The Minnesota Department of Health expects to hit a milestone this week: 1 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses administered. The doses administered so far are already positively impacting Minnesotans in long-term care.

Per Sunday’s data from MDH, a total of 927,384 first and second doses have gone into arms statewide. The senior community makes up just under half of the state’s vaccine recipients so far; 307,423 people ages 65 and older have received at least one vaccine dose. They represent 35.8 percent of Minnesota’s senior population, MDH estimates.

A good chunk of those seniors live in long-term care or assisted living facilities and were part of Minnesota’s very first priority group for COVID-19 vaccinations. The impact of vaccinating nursing home residents and staff (along with frontline healthcare workers) is showing up in an encouraging way, says MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm.

“Looking at the most recent weekly data, we had just 15 cases reported in nursing homes,” Malcolm said. “Even over the summer, when we were in a much much better shape with long-term care, the numbers were well over this level. In fact, the last time we saw case numbers this low on a weekly basis was back in March, at the very beginning of the pandemic in Minnesota.

“We see evidence that the vaccines are helping bring those numbers even further below where we have been,” Malcolm continued.

It is a significant change, especially as 63 percent of the 6,380 Minnesotans who have died from COVID-19 lived in long-term care or assisted living facilities.

While state health officials say that increasing weekly allotments from the Biden Administration are expected, multiple moving parts put the exact number of doses allocated to Minnesota next week in flux, says Malcolm.

One of those moving parts is harsh winter weather. Though Minnesota is beginning to emerge from its subzero cold snap, significant weather throughout the Midwest, Great Plains and the South could throw a wrench into vaccination plans in the coming week.

“With the storms that are occurring across our country — in particular, in the South — vaccine shipments are delayed this week,” Ehresmann said. “So, providers are having to reschedule appointments as they learn about the status of their shipments.”

Another factor for the allocation numbers is that in previous allocations of the Pfizer vaccine, each vial was counted as five doses. State infectious disease director Kris Erhesmann says there’s a sixth dose in each Pfizer vial that originally went uncounted. Though vaccinators have been using those extra doses from the vials all along, she says, future dose allocations could look bigger even if the same amount of vials are being shipped to the state.

“They are now counting every vial from Pfizer as having six doses, when in the past they were only counted as having five, so some of that increase is on paper,” Ehresmann said.

As of Sunday, 686,210 Minnesotans have gotten at least their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. They represent 12.3 percent of the state’s population, and out of that group, 240,027 have gotten a second dose.