EAGAN, Minn. — The above video includes information about signing up for Minnesota's Vaccine Connector, which will notify you when you're eligible for a vaccine.
As Minnesota continues its mission to vaccinate 70% of residents 65 and older before expanding vaccine eligibility, a fifth community vaccination site is opening in Eagan.
The state announced it's partnering with the Minnesota Vikings to offer the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine to health care workers and the 65+ age group at the Twin Cities Orthopedics (TCO) Performance Center starting this week.
“This partnership with the Minnesota Vikings helps us move the ball down the field in the fight to end the COVID-19 pandemic,” Governor Tim Walz said in a statement. “This one-and-done vaccine is safe, highly effective, and helps us more quickly provide immunity to Minnesotans including to our courageous health care providers and our older neighbors.”
Johnson & Johnson's single-dose shot is the third COVID-19 vaccine approved for use in the United States. The drug received emergency use authorization from the FDA on Feb. 27 and more than 45,000 doses arrived in Minnesota on Wednesday.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, has encouraged Americans to take whatever coronavirus vaccine is available to them, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer or Moderna.
"All three of them are really quite good, and people should take the one that's most available to them," Fauci said in an interview on Meet the Press on Feb. 28. "If you go to a place and you have J&J, and that's the one that's available now, I would take it. I personally would do the same thing. I think people need to get vaccinated as quickly and as expeditiously as possible."
The TCO location in Eagan is the sixth community vaccination site launched by the state. Other locations are in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, Duluth and Bloomington.
More than a million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Minnesota so far. According to the governor's office, more than 54% of residents 65+ have received at least one dose. Nationwide, Minnesota ranks third for percentage of doses delivered being administered.