Monday, the effort to vaccinate Minnesota's most vulnerable will officially begin.

Shots will be administered at hundreds of long-term care facilities across the state and in Wisconsin.

It's part of a program led by CVS and Walgreens to help protect seniors who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

It's going to take 12 weeks as pharmacists make a few visits to make sure patients get their second dose. Their goal is to vaccine up to 4 million people with the hope of alleviating the pressure at these facilities.

During these last couple of weeks, thousands of people—mostly health care workers—have been vaccinated; 3,000 have been vaccinated in Minnesota and more than 10,000 have in Wisconsin.

The Pfizer vaccine was used in those instances and now with the Moderna vaccine becoming available, this program is able to take off, since that vaccine does not need to be kept at ultra-cold temperatures, making it easier to ship.

"For our skilled nursing facilities, which is our first priority in that Phase 1A,Tier 1, we are using the Moderna vaccine and so the doses of the Moderna vaccine have been set aside for that population," Minnesota Department of Health Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann said.

In-person shots at CVS locations won't be available until next year. When in-person shots are available, up to 25 million shots can reportedly be given in a month across the country.

Health officials say they hope this week will be a great step forward in protecting those most vulnerable and to getting close to more visits in-person.

To watch the original report and see related stories, follow this link to the KSTP-TV website.   https://kstp.com/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccinations-set-to-begin-at-long-term-care-facilities-minneso...