People who get vaccinated out-of-state unlikely to affect Minnesota’s count
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On Thursday, Gov. Tim Walz announced that if 70% of Minnesotans get vaccinated, COVID-19 restrictions could be lifted ahead of the July 1 start date. Minnesota has about 10% more to go to reach that goal.
But as the state keeps a close eye on the benchmark, it doesn’t appear Minnesotans who receive their vaccine out-of-state will make a big difference in reaching the benchmark.
The Minnesota Department of Health says they’re able to track when Minnesotans go to a neighboring state to get their vaccine. But with states like Florida or Arizona, that is trickier to do.
According to a 2015 survey of older Minnesotans conducted by the Department of Human Services, about 44,000 people ages 50 and older say they live outside of the state for part of the year. It’s a small portion of the population, so the MDH says the number of people vaccinated out of the state in those locations are unlikely to be significant enough to affect how soon COVID-19 restrictions come off.
MDH officials encourage Minnesotans who were vaccinated in other states to let their providers in Minnesota know so they can be recorded and factored into the overall count.
