Health officials in Minnesota’s Koochiching County continue efforts to get more people vaccinated against COVID-19.
As of Thursday morning, 56 per cent of county residents 12 and older are considered partially vaccinated, though 50 per cent of eligible residents are fully vaccinated. The number takes into account the use of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine that requires only one dose.
There are still over 5,000 eligible residents who have not received even a single vaccine dose.
The County’s Director of Health and Human Services, Kathy LaFrance, says they are not seeing as many young people as they had hoped.
“We were hoping to see a lot of the young people, but that is the population that’s most likely not to get vaccinated, and saying that they’re not interested in being vaccinated,” says LaFrance.
LaFrance says that is alarming with the Delta variant now the main concern.
The variant is accounting for about 20 per cent of all new infections in the U.S. and doubling every two weeks.
“All of the media is really pushing for people to continue to be vaccinated. We hope that some will do that to keep this at bay,” says LaFrance.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has enlisted a number of Vaccine Ambassadors to spread the word about the importance of getting vaccinated.
