COVID-19 has taken another 43 lives in Minnesota while 1,598 new cases were announced Thursday by state health officials.
So far, 5,817 state residents have died in the pandemic, with 64% of them residents of long-term care, including 23 of the new deaths.
A total of 153,332 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines, including 15,082 who have now gotten the second shot, making them fully vaccinated.
The state is on track to get a total of 558,300 doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines by next week. Most of those are being sent to health care facilities or local public health agencies, but about 105,000 are reserved for nursing homes.
There is a lag time in vaccine reporting, with the most current information available including 9,637 shots entered into the state's vaccine database last Tuesday.
Minnesota health officials are planning for a possible change in COVID-19 vaccine distribution after the federal government announced Tuesday that states could broaden access to the shots to everyone aged 65 and up, as well as those who have underlying health conditions that make them susceptible to coronavirus complications.
In Minnesota, that would expand the pool of those eligible for the vaccine to 2.2 million state residents. It also raises questions about vaccine availability for front-line essential workers, including police, fire, transit workers and grocery store employees, who were scheduled to be included in the next round.
The federal government has yet to provide detailed guidance to the states, including how many doses it will allocate in the coming weeks.
