March 8 update on COVID-19 in MN: Vaccine eligibility set to widen as pace quickens
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3 things to know:
State could reach key threshold Wednesday on vaccinating 65 and older
Gov. Walz set to speak Tuesday morning on next steps
Carver County youth sports outbreak remains a concern
Updated: 7:32 p.m.
Minnesota’s COVID-19 vaccination pace continues to quicken, enough so that the state is likely to soon reach a key threshold — at least 70 percent of people age 65 and older getting at least their first dose.
Officials once hoped to reach that goal by the end of March. But the current trajectory shows it may happen Wednesday, speeding the timeline for when any Minnesotan can get a shot.
Sixty-six percent of Minnesotans 65 and older have received at least one shot currently, according to Monday’s Health Department report.
Once the 65-and-older milestone is reached, Minnesota will widen vaccination eligibility to people with underlying health conditions and workplace exposure risk, including some 45,000 employees working at Minnesota food processing plants.
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Gov. Tim Walz is expected to speak at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday on the next steps in the state’s vaccination plan.
Public health leaders have said for weeks that they’d be ready to ramp up when they got more supply. With more than 127,000 doses expected this week in Minnesota, the moment appears to have arrived.
Monday’s data showed about 42,000 new vaccinations. The seven-day trend is running at more than 40,000 shots daily.
The Health Department on Monday reported more than 590,000 people — 10.6 percent of the state’s population — have completed their vaccinations, while nearly 1.1 million — about 19.3 percent — had received at least one dose.
Minnesota ranks 16th among states in doses administered per 100,000 people, according to data collected by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC also delivered some encouraging guidance Monday, saying now that people who are fully vaccinated can gather with other vaccinated people indoors without wearing a mask or social distancing.
Disease data stays steady
As the pace of vaccinations gains traction, Minnesota’s COVID-19 numbers show disease conditions continue to be mostly stable.
Hospitalization rates remain at levels last seen before the late-fall surge in cases. There were 223 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Minnesota as of Sunday; 46 needed intensive care.
Known, active cases came in at 7,071 on Monday, continuing a trend that’s held steady through February and remains down dramatically from late November and early December.
Six newly reported deaths raised Minnesota’s toll to 6,556. Among those who’ve died, about 62 percent had been living in long-term care or assisted living facilities; most had underlying health problems.
Daily death counts had been ticking up last week before slipping back into single digits Sunday and Monday.
The state has recorded 490,483 total confirmed or probable cases so far in the pandemic, including 473 reported Monday. About 97 percent of Minnesotans known to be infected with COVID-19 in the pandemic have recovered to the point where they no longer need to be isolated.
Cases spread across age groups, regions
People in their 20s still make up the age bracket with the state’s largest number of confirmed cases — more than 92,000 since the pandemic began, including more than 48,000 among those ages 20 to 24.
The number of high school-age youth confirmed with the disease has also grown, with more than 38,000 total cases among those ages 15 to 19 since the pandemic began.
With kids increasingly returning to school buildings and sports, Minnesota public health officials are urging Minnesota families with children to get tested every two weeks for COVID-19 now until the end of the school year.
Although young people are less likely to feel the worst effects of the disease and end up hospitalized, experts worry youth will spread it unknowingly to older relatives and members of other vulnerable populations.
People can have the coronavirus and spread COVID-19 when they don’t have symptoms.
Regionally, most parts of Minnesota are down significantly from the late November and early December spike, as well as a smaller January uptick.
Caseloads still heaviest among people of color
In Minnesota and across the country, COVID-19 has hit communities of color disproportionately hard in both cases and deaths. That’s been especially true for Minnesotans of Hispanic descent for much of the pandemic.
Even as new case counts continue to track well below their late November, early December peaks, the data shows Latino people continue to be hit hard.
Distrust of the government, together with deeply rooted health and economic disparities, have hampered efforts to boost testing among communities of color, officials say, especially among unauthorized immigrants who fear their personal information may be used to deport them.
Walz has acknowledged that distrust by communities of color has been a problem during the pandemic. Officials on Friday offered up some data on vaccinations broken down by race and ethnicity.
Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the state was committed to doing more to expand vaccine access to people of color, including getting more doses to community pharmacies, partnering with local groups and deploying mobile vaccination clinics.
U.K. outbreak in Carver Co. linked to youth sports
Minnesota health officials are warning of a “rapidly growing outbreak” of the U.K. COVID-19 strain tied to youth sports in Carver County. They are recommending, but not ordering, a two-week suspension of youth sports in the county amid the outbreak.
Since late January, there have been at least 80 COVID-19 cases linked to school and club sports in the metro-area county. Among those, 27 have been confirmed to be the U.K. variant, state officials said Monday.
Epidemiologists have also seen an uptick of the U.K. variant cases in Carver County gyms and fitness centers — with many of those linked to the youth sports cases. The state will open a COVID-19 testing center in Chanhassen in response.
The growth of the variant presents an "added risk that we may see another surge in cases, and we need everyone to do their part to prevent that from happening,” said Kris Ehresmann, the state’s infectious disease director.
Many of those confirmed cases are young people who are not in line to get a vaccination in the short-term.
It’s not just a Carver County problem, she added, noting that 15 counties have at least one confirmed case of the variant.
The U.K. strain is considered more transmissible than other coronavirus variants. While researchers don't believe it's more deadly on its own, its ease of spread may lead to more deaths.
“We’re making progress with vaccines,” she said, “but it is a race against time.”
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.
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