MINNEAPOLIS — Pharmacy chain CVS Health announced on Monday that the company will begin vaccinating more than 63,000 long-term care residents and workers across Minnesota next week.
CVS Health announced that it began vaccinating long-term care residents and staff in 12 states on Monday, and expects to begin administering the shot in 36 more states, including Minnesota, on Dec. 28. The pharmacy giant expects to vaccinate 4 million residents and staff at 40,000 facilities across the country in 12 weeks.
Minnesota began administering Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shots to healthcare workers last week after the vaccine received emergency approval earlier this month. The state's initial shipment last week contained 46,800 doses, and state health officials expect to receive more than 33,000 this week.
The Minnesota Department of Health reported 1,998 new infections and 22 deaths on Monday, the lowest number of single-day cases reported since late October.
According to The COVID Tracking Project, the 7-day rolling average of daily new cases in Minnesota continued to decrease over the past two weeks, going from 5,894 new cases per day on Dec. 5 to 2,748.14 new cases per day on Dec. 19.
Hospitalizations across the state have trended downward as well, with 1,040 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 including 237 in intensive care as of Sunday.
