How soon will all of Minnesota’s health care workers and nursing home residents be vaccinated against COVID? State Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm says although the vaccine supply will grow, in these early weeks and months it will be quite constrained. “Going to take us several weeks even to vaccinate the very, very highest priority subsets of health care workers and people in long term care that will get the first vaccines. So it’s gonna take several weeks just to work through that population,” she says.
Officials say there are about 500 thousand people in the category of “health care workers and long-term care residents.” The state is expecting enough doses by year’s end to vaccine about 183 thousand.
After Minnesota’s health care workers and nursing home residents are vaccinated against COVID — probably early next year — who’s next in line? The federal government says “essential workers” — and the state Health Department’s Kris Ehresmann says she hopes they specify *who* is in that category:
“Some of the things that they have mentioned have been educators, utility, electric grid,… food supply workers…. First responders would be in that,” Ehresmann says. If the federal government does not provide a highly-detailed list, it’s up to the states to work it out.