Health Officials Seeing Upward Trend in Covid-19 Vaccinations

DULUTH, Minn. —  The vaccination rates for younger age groups are still going up in the northland.

After the FDA and CDC approved the covid shots for younger kids, the vaccination rate went up in st. Louis county again.

So far, about 25 percent of kids ages 5 to 11 have gotten both shots, while almost 70 percent have at least one dose.

Officials say it’s the best way to slow mutations of the virus and protect yourself from becoming seriously ill from it.

“When we started rolling out vaccine our goal was to get to a 70% vaccination rate for 16 plus at the time. So it is encouraging we are close to that,” st. Louis County Public Health Director, Amy Westbrook says.

Health leaders say that during this time last year, when we didn’t have the vaccine yet, they were seeing some of the highest numbers of new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths related to Covid-19.

Now, we’re seeing a rise in cases again, public health officials will find out in the next week if there is any big jump in covid cases from this past holiday weekend.