Fargo’s vaccination rate is 50 percent

FARGO, N.D. – Fargo Cass Public Health says the city is nearing a Covid-19 vaccination milestone despite a change in vaccinations.

Earlier this week the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was put on pause. Six people out of the more than six million who received the vaccine developed blood clots. Fargo Cass Public Health says they had to make some adjustments.

“It didn’t affect us a whole lot here for our operations because we didn’t have a lot of Johnson and Johnson our allocations were pretty low,” Suzanne Schaefer with Fargo Cass Public Health said.

For individuals who were scheduled to receive Johnson and Johnson vaccines this week, the department has reached out to them and switched them to the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.

“There is increase demand for vaccine that has been seen not just Fargo Cass public health but for medical providers a little bit,” Schaefer said.

The city’s vaccination rate is at 50 percent and rising despite only having two vaccines available.

“As of yesterday administered 128,350 doses,” said Schaefer.

The city is still trying to reach herd immunity. Local health leaders are looking into more mobile sites and small clinics opposed to mass vaccination sites.

“The fact that we backed off the mask mandate and things are loosening up quite a bit larger events are happening it’s a little concerning that our numbers are as high as they are,” Fargo City Commissioner Arlette Preston said.

Health leaders say that it will be tough to try and get herd immunity if the mobile outreach percentage isn’t achieved but hope to be creative as they can to make it happen. If not,

“We are going to be living with this for quite a while and that’s a little nerve racking,” Preston added.