On Monday, Senator Mark Koran (R-North Branch), Vice-Chair of the Senate’s Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care, joined Senator Housley (R-Stillwater) to release the caucus’s “Seniors 1st” plan and urged Governor Walz to place seniors as the first priority in his updated vaccination plans. Today, the Governor announced that 35,000 doses of the COVID vaccine would be sent to 100 additional sites across the state, allocated specifically for seniors. It was also announced the nine pilot sites throughout the state would be decreased to three under the Governor’s updated plan.  

  “Our greatest concern is our seniors, and we are concerned with the Governor’s plans and the continued lack of oversight,” said Senator Koran. “Governor Walz’s vaccination rollout has been miserable to date. Every week there is a new protocol, “let’s do pilot sites,” “let’s do pilot sites with seniors,” “no, let’s do educators and daycare workers,” “let’s work with pharmacies,” “but only some of them, “no “let’s do a large event at Roy Wilkins,” “no never mind. ” lost in the confusion are our seniors, the people who are the most vulnerable to this virus and the ones that we should be focused on vaccinating first.”

As of February 1, there have been over 6,000 COVID-19 deaths in Minnesota. Of those, 90% have been attributed to seniors 65 and older. The state has distributed more than 444,000 vaccines, yet only 25% have been allocated to Minnesotans 65 and older. The “Seniors 1st” plan proposed by Sen. Housley would move towards blanketing the entire states with vaccine sites through community pharmacies already equipped to store, schedule, and administer vaccinations.  

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Watch the press conference here.