MN Government Updates 01.15.21

Minnesota Department of Health Urges Providers to Offer COVID-19 Doses to Broader Groups

Following significant changes in federal guidance on vaccine distribution earlier this week, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) today informed hospitals, health care systems, and other vaccination partners that they can provide vaccines to broader categories of Minnesotans – including Minnesotans 65 years of age and older.

According to Minnesota Commissioner of Health Jan Malcolm, today’s announcement is designed to free health care providers and other vaccination partners to use all available doses as quickly as possible while still ensuring that doses are targeted to those most at need for protection from COVID-19.

“We are approaching the end of our earliest stages of the vaccine rollout, and we want to make sure all vaccines in the state are getting into arms as quickly as possible,” Commissioner Malcolm said. “The state is making sure that providers have nothing holding them back from immediately using any and all vaccine they have available. That said, the reality is that we have far more Minnesotans wanting the vaccine than we have doses available from the federal government. We are ready to get more vaccines out very quickly, but now we desperately need the federal government to step up and provide us with more vaccine.”

More information on the next phases of vaccine rollout will be announced in the coming days. Meanwhile, the state is urging the federal government to provide more vaccine immediately.

“It will be some time before the federal government provides our state with enough vaccine to cover all those currently eligible,” Commissioner Malcolm said. “Minnesota is ready to move on anything we get immediately, and we are working quickly to create new options for Minnesotans to schedule a vaccine. We’ll be sharing more details on this in the next few days.”

Minnesotans can find more vaccine information on the state’s COVID-19 Response website.

Minnesota Department of Health Briefing

This afternoon, officials from the Minnesota Department of Health conducted a media briefing with reporters to update the public on the spread of COVID-19 in the state and discuss COVID-19 vaccination.

Commissioner Jan Malcolm, Department of Health

  • Commissioner Malcolm reported 1,598 new cases of COVID-19. This brings the state’s total number of COVID-19 cases to 441,935.
  • Yesterday, 36,778 COVID-19 tests were processed.
  • An additional 43 Minnesotans died due to COVID-19. This brings the state’s total number of COVID-19 deaths to 5,817.
  • Currently, 645 patients are hospitalized due to COVID-19 with 131 of those in the ICU.
  • Following significant changes in federal guidance announced on Tuesday, the Minnesota Department of Health has informed its vaccination partners that they can begin to provide the vaccine to broader categories of Minnesotans – including those 65-years-old and older. The department has been hearing feedback that those in charge of vaccinating have been making progress on immunizing the priority populations and would like the flexibility to use remaining available doses on additional populations that the federal government has said they can vaccinate.
  • The commissioner said that the state is ready to get more vaccines out more quickly, but needs the federal government to provide the state with additional supply of vaccine to make that possible.
  • The state will be announcing more information in the coming days on vaccine rollout and how it plans to serve expanded populations.

Dr. Ruth Lynfield, State Epidemiologist

  • Nationally, the CDC has reported 1,659 and 26 deaths associated with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), a condition where different body parts can become inflamed after contracting COVID-19.
  • Minnesota has had 56 confirmed cases and zero deaths of MIS-C.
  • The average age is seven-and-a-half-years-old with the age range from 6 months to 20 years.
  • 73% of cases are male.
  • The majority of cases are Black or Hispanic children.
  • The state is seeing more cases of MIS-C cases now than last fall. However, it is still extremely rare with 56 cases out of more than 72,000 cases of COVID-19 in children (ages 0-19).
  • The most typical symptoms are prolonged fever (around three days), rash, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
  • A similar syndrome in adults, called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Adults (MIS-A), appears to be even more rare. It is somewhat similar in presentation and clinical symptoms to MIS-C. Adults who have had MIS-A had cardiac, heart, or GI symptoms. Treatment is similar to MIS-C. There are five known cases of MIS-A.

Amos A. Briggs | Government Relations
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