Mass Vaccination Site Opens in St. Cloud

(KNSI) – St. Cloud has been selected as the next Minnesota city to have a mass COVID-19 vaccination site.

Medical staff will give 1,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine every Wednesday at the River’s Edge Convention Center. The mass vaccination site will be open from noon to 8 p.m.

Health officials say we’re in a race against time to get everyone vaccinated before more variant strains become an issue.

Stearns County Human Services Public Health Director Janet Goligowski says the vaccines are a game-changer for local residents.

“And when I say local, I don’t mean County, I mean, our geographic central Minnesota, we’ll be pulling folks in all over from there. The other reason it’s a game-changer is that it allows us as Stearns County Public Health to target those communities that we know can’t get to these sites. And so we’re all working in concert together to get more shots and more arms. That’s why it’s a game-changer.”

Registered eligible adults will get an email to set up an appointment. Vaccines will be given by appointment only.

People will be given a card to show they’ve received their first dose, and an appointment will be made in four weeks for their second vaccine. Getting vaccinated takes less than an hour.

Officials hope to vaccinate 6,000 people between now and May 1st.

The vaccination site will be open as long as it’s needed.

The River’s Edge Convention Center was used as a vaccination pilot site a few months ago, and everything went well.

Goligowski said with this new vaccine source; Central Minnesota is getting close to the end of this pandemic.

“We are starting to think about doing the business of our business. We’re starting to be able to go 1000 more vaccines in arms a week and CentraCare is doing 1000s of vaccines. We have 6000 vaccines now in arms. And so, as that happens, and you can see the governor dialing back, all of that is really good indicators that we can see light at the end of the tunnel. Kids are back in school we have a few more people that can sit at a restaurant, you have a few more people that can sit at our bars. That can only help our economy to get everyone back to normal.”

On Monday, Minnesota eased COVID restrictions by allowing more people to gather and increased capacity limits at restaurants, businesses, and social gatherings.

Two weeks ago, the governor made another 1.8 million Minnesotans eligible to receive the vaccine.

St. Cloud is the sixth community to get a mass vaccination site. The others are Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, Rochester, and Duluth.

To register for a COVID-19 vaccine, click here.