“We're excited. We're ready to go,” Roger Reinert, Interim Executive Director at the DECC said.

At 8:00am Monday, the site will open for a total of 12 hours with the goal of vaccinating 1500 Minnesotans 65 and older, who were selected for appointments based on a randomized lottery.

“There was about 225,000 Minnesota seniors who were qualified and are being selected at random in a lottery who will be attending this event,” Jason Metza, State Incident Commander for the State Emergency Operations Center said.

According to Metza, nearly every appointment slot has been filled for Monday, but he added that Vault Health will continue to reach out to eligible Minnesotans through their randomized lottery to try and secure remaining slots.

“They had 1100 confirmations as of yesterday afternoon when I checked, which is really close to the 1500, so I’m sure over the next 24 hours, we'll have that list completed,” Metza said.

For the time being, leaders say the number of vaccines they receive per week will vary. Therefore, they don't know when they will schedule their next round of appointments. But in the future, they hope to vaccinate thousands.

“This is such a site of hope right now for this community, for our region to know that we are now to this phase of the pandemic, which is insuring we are getting as many vaccines to people as possible,” Duluth Mayor Emily Larson said.

According to Shawn Baxley, Vice President of Field Operations for Vault Health, the entire vaccination process only takes about 25 minutes per person.

“Once you come in, we will give you all the information you need. You'll head right over to one of our nursing stations. There, a nurse will ask medical questions, be able to give you the shot,” Baxley said.

After people receive their vaccination, Baxlety said they will be escorted to a waiting area where they must remain for at least 15 minutes to insure they aren’t having any negative side effects to the vaccine. Once they are good to go, they can go on their way until they receive their second dose of the vaccine which will also be administered at the DECC.

In addtion testing sites across the country, Baxley said Vault Health has opened vaccination sites in three states.

“We are operating in New Jersey, Delaware and now in Minnesota,” Baxley said.  According to Baxley, vaccination sites in Minnesota include one in Minneapolis and now one in Duluth.

More information about the COVID-19 vaccine in Minnesota can be found here.

To read the original story and read related reporting, follow this link to the WDIO-TV website.  https://www.wdio.com/duluth-minnesota-news/decc-community-vaccination-site-to-open/6005186/?cat=1033...