But the state is warning that the number of doses available will continue to be very limited — at least for now.

Who's now eligible to get their vaccines?

While Minnesota continues to work through its highest-priority groups — like front-line health care workers; those directly caring for, and exposed to, COVID-19 patients; residents of long-term care facilities and long-term care workers — the state last week expanded the pool of people who can sign up to be vaccinated simultaneously.

In this new group: People who are 65 and older, as well as teachers and child care providers.

But this is not a full-scale rollout. This expansion comes in response to new guidance the federal government announced recently that opens vaccination up to a broader group sooner than expected.

Teachers and child care providers won't be able to make appointments unless they're on a list compiled by their employers or school districts.

All told, the current group of eligible vaccine recipients includes:

Members of the 1a priority group (who are being vaccinated through their employers)
People who are 65 or older
Educators of students in pre-K through 12th grade
Child care providers

How can I sign up to get vaccinated?

If you are eligible to be vaccinated under the new guidance, there are two ways to sign up: Online or over the phone.

But you’ll have to sign up for a time slot. Unlike COVID-19 testing around the state, there won’t be any opportunity to walk in and be vaccinated.

The state health department says it will open up new time slots every Tuesday at noon.

To sign up for your slot:

Call 612-426-7230 or 833-431-2053 (toll free)
Go online at mn.gov/vaccine

Where will the vaccines be administered?

The state is setting up nine vaccine sites around Minnesota where members of this expanded group can get their shots:

Anoka
Brooklyn Center
Fergus Falls
Marshall
Mountain Iron
North Mankato
Rochester
St. Cloud
Thief River Falls

On any given week, half the shots at these sites will be allocated to people 65 and older and the other half will be allocated to teachers.

Will it be easy for people to get an appointment?

It will likely be tough.

"This is going to be harder than going to Ticketmaster getting Bruce Springsteen tickets,” Gov. Tim Walz said Monday, when the pilot sites were announced.

Keep in mind: People 65 and older make up roughly 16 percent of Minnesota's population — nearly 1 million Minnesotans.

And remember: The federal government is allocating the vaccine doses to the states. Right now, the state is only getting about 60,000 doses a week.

At least for now, about 20 percent of those will be divided among the nine new community sites, based on population and workforce needs.

Why are these sites popping up, when only a fraction of the population will have access to them?

Walz acknowledged the risk in announcing the expanded vaccinations — that people will try to get an appointment without any luck, get fed up and stop trying.

But the new rollout is part of the state’s long game.

The nine sites are meant to pilot what the state envisions will become a much larger-scale vaccination strategy once the Biden administration takes office. Biden has promised to give states many more doses, so Walz said he's hopeful Minnesota's allocations will expand in coming weeks, and this change is meant to be a stopgap until that happens.

At the same time, it will allow health care providers to test-drive their own systems. Some have extra vaccines on hand already, and want to get them out to their patients.

It is also intended to allow providers and public health departments be more nimble in administering shots, making sure doses aren't waiting around or being wasted.

What does this mean for people who were in line to be vaccinated next, under the original plan?

The state is still in the process of following its original vaccine rollout plan — and is currently vaccinating people in the first group of that strategy: health care workers, dentists, people working as in-home nurses or mental health care clinics.

There is a fairly large group of people — working in private dental or medical practices, mental health providers, in-home nurses — who are already in line to get the vaccine toward the end of the first-priority 1A group, but fall into a bit of a grey area.

They can't get shots through a big hospital because they are private and unaffiliated. But many people in that group say they remain in the dark on when and how they will get their vaccine.

The Minnesota Health Department’s infectious disease director, Kris Ehresmann asked workers who fall into those categories to hold tight a bit longer.

The next group — classified as 1b — was scheduled to start getting vaccinated in February. That group includes other front-line workers who can’t work from home, such as teachers, police, firefighters and essential workers.

With this approach, state health leaders say they’re working out the details of if and how this group’s vaccination plan will change.

COVID-19 in Minnesota

Data in these graphs are based on the Minnesota Department of Health's cumulative totals released at 11 a.m. daily. You can find more detailed statistics on COVID-19 at the Health Department website.

The coronavirus is transmitted through respiratory droplets, coughs and sneezes, similar to the way the flu can spread.

What you need to know about MN’s COVID vaccine rollout