COVID-19 vaccine planning in Olmsted County

  • News
  • Dec 7, 2020
A vaccination needle puncturing COVID

It has been more than nine months since leaders in Olmsted County started meeting and discussing plans about COVID-19 response in our community. Much has happened since then, but the one thing that has remained constant is the collaborative planning and implementation amongst community partners including Olmsted County Public Health, Mayo Clinic, Olmsted Medical Center, the City of Rochester, and others. The arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine in our community is another example of the amazing collaboration happening in Olmsted County. 

Olmsted County has a long history of working together to find the best solutions and addressing concerns affecting our residents and visitors. Planning for vaccination in our community has been happening for several weeks with our partners in healthcare and other public and private agencies. We are working to determine how to best vaccinate the first priority groups and then large amounts of people safely and efficiently. Many of these partners were involved in the 2009 H1N1 mass vaccination efforts, which is serving as a guide for our community. COVID-19, however, is much larger in scope and complexity than any previous outbreak-related vaccination response.

“It is important for the community to know we have been working with our community partners on mass vaccination plans and that we will be ready for when the vaccine arrives in Olmsted County,” stated Director of Olmsted County Public Health Services Graham Briggs.

We do not yet know when vaccine will arrive, but Olmsted County leaders are planning for the arrival of small quantities for certain priority groups as early as December 20, 2020. Local vaccination plans will follow recommendations set by the Minnesota Department of Health using federal guidelines on which groups should receive the vaccine first. 

Olmsted County is committed to sharing more information on this topic as it becomes available.

See the COVID-19 page on our website for more information about COVID-19 in our community. 

Questions?

If you have any questions, contact COVID PIO.