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FAIRMONT -- According to a joint release from Public Health services, Mayo Health System of Fairmont, United Hospital District of Blue Earth, Dulcimer Medical Center, County Emergency Management, and the South Central Health Care Coalition, as of March 5, 2021, 4,391 Martin County individuals have received at least their first vaccination for COVID-19. 18 percent of the population has received at least one dose. 35 percent of the population of people age 65 and older have received vaccinations.
In Faribault County, 2,975 individuals have received at least their first vaccination for COVID-19. 18 percent of the total population has received at least one dose.
It is expected that the state will hit its target of vaccinating 70 percent of those over age 65 this week. Local public health and health care providers are preparing to move into the next tier of vaccinations which includes people with specific high-risk conditions (sickle cell disease, Down Syndrome, active cancer treatment, immunocompromised from organ transplant, chronic lung and heart conditions – COPD and CHF) as well as employees of food processing plants. It is expected that this next phase may start as soon as the week of March 15, 2021.
As vaccines continue to be distributed, Tim Langer, Public Health Sanitarian, of Community Health & Human Services of Faribault and Martin Counties shares that the public still needs to maintain a level of caution.
"Right now we are starting to get people vaccinated, which is great," he said. "However, we still have a lot of people that are not vaccinated and we are concerned about the UK [coronavirus] variant.
"Experts are predicting that we're going to have another surge or peak within the next two months. This virus spreads a lot easier than the native virus and has proven to be more serious. So we absolutely need to maintain the masking and distancing until we reach a point where we've had enough people vaccinated or who have had the illness to reach herd immunity."
Langer stated that day won't come until some point later this summer. He also noted with concern the number of people who are relaxing their safety standards.
"I'm seeing people not masking and when you go to places like Walmart 40 percent of people are not masked at all. Anecdotally, I'm hearing that things aren't being taken as seriously."
Langer attributes at least some of that thinking to a misunderstanding of recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
"I think what we're seeing is that the CDC has recently given some guidance for people who have been vaccinated, which means 14 days after your second shot. They've given guidance for those people if they're in private and around other people that have been vaccinated, but when they are in public and around people who have not been vaccinated, they too are supposed to be masking and social distancing.
"We're kind of at a tricky spot right now with this virus in that we're actually gaining immunity slowly throughout the vaccine or through the illness, but we need to get through what will hopefully be a final "peak." We're already seeing that in Florida where we're having higher incidents of cases, and it's concerning that states like Texas and Mississippi have removed their mask mandates and distancing restrictions."
Finally, Langer shares that diligence is key, stating that people shouldn't let their anticipation and excitement get the best of them.
"Everybody needs to remain diligent and continue what we're doing until it's advised that we don't maintain those precautions. We have spring coming along, people have been vaccinated and are excited about that, but we can't drop the ball right now. We need to keep maintaining our precautions until we have herd immunity."