Walz: Next Vaccine Priority Group Will Be Announced Within Days

(FOX 9) – Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says he will announce within days the next priority groups to get the COVID-19 vaccine, without waiting until senior citizens are fully vaccinated.

Walz said administration officials are debating whether to make the move once 60 percent of seniors are vaccinated, or 70 percent, or 80 percent. According to health officials, nearly 42 percent of Minnesota seniors have had at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“There are 65-year-olds that are healthy and are simply not standing in line yet. We want them to get it, but we can’t hold up giving it to others while we’re waiting for somebody to decide if they’re going to take it,” Walz told reporters in Minneapolis on Tuesday.

Walz did not say which groups he would prioritize. Everyone from grocery store clerks to food production workers and younger Minnesotans with medical conditions have said they should be put next in line.

Minnesota is likely to see a large increase in doses over the next several weeks because of manufacturing gains at Pfizer and Moderna, as well as a new single-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson that’s expected to get FDA emergency authorization within a week.

Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm has said it’s her goal to offer a first dose to all people ages 65 and older by the end of March.

Yet the Minnesota AARP raised new concerns Tuesday about the rollout to seniors.

Seniors are “confused and frustrated about why decisions have been made and the system they are left to navigate and demoralized when their efforts to secure a vaccine come up empty,” Will Phillips, the AARP’s state director, wrote in a letter to Walz and Malcolm.

Malcolm is scheduled to testify Wednesday at the Senate Aging Committee, which is led by Republican senators who have criticized the rollout.

For more information on the state’s Vaccine Connector website, click here.