by John McLoone

When the COVID-19 vaccine is ready, Dakota County Public Health will be ready and waiting.

In a virtual Town Hall Meeting in late November hosted by Dakota County Commissioner Joe Atkins and Board of Commissioners Chair Mike Slavik, Public Health Epidemiologist Christine Lees said the county is putting the pieces into place to get the vaccine delivered. Atkins joked at the beginning of the meeting that he had recently gotten a haircut. “I told the gal, give me one that will last at least four weeks,” he said. It ended up being a moot point because the latest order from Gov. Tim Walz allows barbershops and hair salons to stay open with limitations on occupancy.

The restrictions mainly focus on bars and restaurants, which are limited to to-go service only, and social gatherings. The orders remain in effect until Dec. 18 to try to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Dakota County has had 22,414 positive cases of COVID-19, and there have been 190 deaths attributed to the virus.

There have been 1,117 cases in Hastings.

Lees said there are two vaccine candidates that should be ready for distribution possibly within the month.

“Getting a safe and effective vaccine is really the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. “We’re excited to be moving toward this phase.”

She said both of those initial vaccines introduced are administered in two doses, one 21 days apart and the other 28. Both have to be maintained at frozen temperatures.

“Something that we’re planning for is that we can accommodate those storage needs,” she said. “The really exciting news is both of these vaccines have been found to be extremely effective. That is really exciting. When we think about the different types of vaccines out there that we get every day, some of our most effective vaccines are at this level.”

She said that the measles vaccine has allowed “90 percent protection for life.”

“Because of the vaccine rates, we have in our communities been able to stop measles outbreaks in their tracks,” said Lees. “When you have a vaccine this effective, it will allow us to achieve herd immunity faster and much longer as a vaccine that’s not as effective.”

She also said with the two primary vaccine candidates “side effects have been minimal to none.”

The United States has 100 million doses of each of those vaccines on order.

“All of that should be giving us all a lot of hope,” she said. “I do not have a crystal ball.”

She said Dakota County started planning for vaccine distribution in July.

“We anticipate to be able to start vaccinating people for sure at the beginning of next year, but maybe by the end of December,” she said.

The vaccine will first go to health care workers, long-term care facility workers and people over age 65. “We’re making sure we’re ready to go on day one,” said Lees. “Our health care workers are our very first group. That’s critical workforce. We’re looking at staffing shortages right there that are very serious.”

Also on the initial list are police, firefighters and emergency workers. “Then the focus will be on high-risk groups,” she said. “In Public Health, we are working on plans to get vaccines out to these groups as fast as we can.”

See Public Health Page 5

Christine Lees with the plan on vaccination.

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In the second phase – likely in the spring – the focus will be on phase two, which will be large-scale community clinics and reaching hard-to-reach populations, the homeless, underinsured or uninsured and mobility impaired people.

By summer, she said the vaccine distribution will be wide.

“We’ve really learned a lot about how to safely run clinics during COVID, with drive-throughs and social distancing,” she said. “We are prepared and ready to go. We have a really dedicated staff who are working hard to make sure we get the vaccine out as quickly as possible.”

Atkins created the work of Dakota County Public Health, which he noted has been rated “top Public Health in the country.”

“If there was ever the time to have you guys doing what you’re doing, it’s now,” he said.

Slavik gave a presentation of what the county has done to help citizens and businesses, largely through CARES Act funding distributed to states from Congress.

“There have been very many people since the beginning of the pandemic that have been struggling,” said Slavic. “We received $52 million to go out and respond to the challenges our citizens and our businesses have been really struggling with.”

“We’ve given out almost $14 million to small businesses to support them and keep their lights on. We know it’s not over yet,” said Slavic.

He noted that the county has given citizens economic assistance, housing assistance and eviction protection as well. Nonprofit organizations were helped with CARES Act funding, and money was earmarked to help improve broadband service.

“We were able to put dollars to areas that are unserved or are underserved,” Slavic said.

The county acted quickly in the spring to help.

“We knew we were in crisis, and we knew we had to help people, businesses and nonprofits,” said Slavic.

Atkins added, “If there was ever a year where it paid off to be debt free, this was it. We are one of the few counties in the nation that has no debt. We were able to hold the line on property taxes this year. It allows you to weather the storm better than others not in that position.”