M Health Fairview has thousands of vaccine appointments available this week

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - With more COVID-19 vaccines becoming available, healthcare providers want to make sure Minnesotans ages 65 and older don’t miss their chance.

Sunday, around 1,000 seniors received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a mass vaccination site run by M Health Fairview in Minneapolis.

M Health Fairview working to fill open vaccination appointments

M Health Fairview has vaccination appointments open for people ages 65 and up and they are hoping to fill them as less than half of seniors in the metro area have been vaccinated to date.

Nearly 550,000 Minnesotans over the age of 65 have received a dose of the vaccine. Around 90,000 in the seven-county metro area still need to do so, however.

Joe Campbell, with M Health Fairview, says they have thousands of appointments available this week. He called on anyone over the age of 65 to sign up.

You don’t have to be a patient at M Health Fairview to get the vaccination before the criteria changes, which will open up more appointments for more people and make the process more competitive.

He says the expanded criteria will lead to increased demand. So if you qualify now, he recommends you consider getting the vaccine sooner rather than later.

To confirm your eligibility and to sign up for a vaccine, visit Fairview's website.