Altru will receive 450 doses of the vaccine in its first allotment. 2:42 pm, Dec. 14, 2020 ×
A vial of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is seen ahead of being administered at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Dec. 8. Liam McBurney/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Grand Forks’ health system will be receiving its first batch of coronavirus vaccine later this week.
Altru Health System announced Monday, Dec. 14, that it will receive its first allocation of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, Dec. 16. Altru will receive 450 doses of the vaccine in its first allotment.
The vaccine is from the manufacturer Pfizer and will come to Altru via the North Dakota Department of Health, according to a press release from the hospital.
Minnesota s first COVID-19 vaccines arrived Monday at four different locations across the state.
Those sites included the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Sanford Bemidji Medical Center, Olmsted Medical Center and Cass Lake Indian Health Services.
Future vaccine distribution will go through a series of hubs across the state, including one in St. Cloud, according to information shared by the Minnesota Department of Health on Monday.
Minnesota expects to receive 46,800 units of the vaccine this week, according to state health officials on a Monday call with reporters. This is an exciting day for Minnesota, said Gov. Tim Walz in a statement. He met the arrival of the first vaccines at the Minneapolis VA on Monday. The first vaccines are here. They are safe, and they will be ready to go soon. The sun is coming up, Minnesota.
Created: December 15, 2020 09:44 AM
On Tuesday, officials at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System addressed the latest plans with the COVID-19 vaccine in Minnesota.
Gov. Tim Walz joined Director Patrick Kelly, Chief of Staff Kent Crossley, Associate Director Kurt Thielen, Network Director Robert McDivitt and VA nurse Thera Witte RN.
Kelly said the facility received its first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine Monday, and its first employee was vaccinated as of Tuesday. McDivitt mentioned that the VA facility was one of the first in the state to administer the vaccine. The Minneapolis VA is a flagship of the U.S. VA system, as it was selected as one of five out of 100 total sites to be the first to receive the vaccine.
IRON RANGE â Coronavirus vaccine doses arrived in some parts of Minnesota on Monday morning, putting the state a step closer to ending the global COVID-19 pandemic, though a widely accessible drug is still months off.
The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were loaded off trucks at Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester, the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Sanford Bemidji Medical Center and Cass Lake Indian Health Services. Dozens more will receive the vaccine soon to distribute to smaller health care systems, about 118, throughout Minnesota. Essentia Health in northeastern Minnesota expects to begin vaccinating its front-line staff next week, a spokesperson said.
Updated 10:52 p.m.
Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday will announce he is extending his current monthlong ban on indoor bar and restaurant service through the year-end holidays; he’ll also detail a strategy to get elementary schools back to in-person learning, an aide to the governor said Tuesday night.
News that the restrictions will continue is likely to come as a blow to the thousands of bar and restaurant owners and workers across the state. Those businesses have been forced to do takeout-only or delivery the past few weeks as health officials worked to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Those restrictions were set to expire on Friday.