Appointments opened up Tuesday for nine pilot vaccination sites statewide for those 65 and over, teachers and school staff, and childcare workers. As of 4:15 p.m., more than 5,000 made appointments for their first and second doses, and five locations had filled up, including Anoka and Brooklyn Center.
Even setting up low expectations for those eligible knowing Minnesota has a short supply of vaccines, officials admit there were strumbles in the first try. Denise, who declined to give her last name, got into the site and chose her location, but was in a waiting room area for nearly two hours. She compared the process to buying highly-sought-after Rolling Stones tickets.
“You know, since March, how can you be frustrated any more?” she said. “It is what it is. It’s like I can’t be really angry about it, just have to keep the patience level going. I’m not trying to be Minnesota Nice, trust me, because I’m tired of it just like everybody else. If we don’t get the amount of doses we were promised, what can you do? You just have to wait.”
As of 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Dept. of Health, 11,000 appointments were booked. 6,000 Minnesotans 65 and older are able to sign-up. MDH is telling folks not to contact their health care providers for appointment assistance.
MDH officials say the sign-ups will be open again next week at noon Tuesday both online and over phone once the next weekly shipment of 60,000 doses arrives. Julie Menten of Plymouth attempted to secure appointments for herself and her husband after nearly a year of being very cautious. She said she’s not angry, but is hoping for a smoother experience next week.
“You know we were warned,” Menten said. “We didn’t have a lot of hope that we would be able to get on today, but I was hoping to get on a waitlist because that’s what it was saying.”
Menten and her husband did not travel to the California desert as they do during the winter and are continuing to hold off on the trip. She said they considered trying to get the vaccine in another state like California, but decided the travel risks were not worth it. Denise said she also knows of friends attempting to get a vaccine in a different state, but she too would wait for Minnesota.
It’s still a learning process from both a technological and logistical standpoint. Folks who were awaiting a spot on the waitlist were told to stay put, but on Twitter, the MDH account later said some had luck starting over.
At its peak, the website was processing 10,000 hits per second and there were nearly a quarter-million phone calls as of 3:45 p.m.
But it’s also a way for the state to learn how to navigate what they hope will soon become a more extensive network of community vaccination clinics once there is an increase in doses. The Biden Administration has pledged 100 million doses in the first 100 days, which could be 2 million for Minnesota, but MDH officials aren’t expecting a surge in supply soon.
“We’ve been told to expect about what we’re getting now for the foreseeable future with promises of that increasing in the future as more vaccines come online and hopefully production of the existing vaccines can be ramped up,” Malcolm said.
