National Influenza Vaccination Week (Dec. 4-8) reminds us that everyone 6 months of age and older should get a flu shot, including pregnant people. It is best to get vaccinated before the flu season starts, but you can get a flu shot at any time during the season and at any time during pregnancy.

Pregnant people are at higher risk of getting very sick from the flu, being hospitalized, or dying from flu-related complications. If a pregnant person gets sick with the flu, it can also cause serious problems with their pregnancy, such as preterm labor and birth.

Getting a flu shot is a safe way to protect both a pregnant person and their developing baby from serious illness and complications of flu. Flu shots have been given to millions of pregnant people for over 50 years, and have not been shown to cause harm to pregnant people or their babies.

If you are pregnant getting a flu shot reduces your risk of being hospitalized with flu by an average of 40%. Your flu shot also helps to protect your baby from flu illness and flu-related hospitalizations for the first several months after their birth. Antibodies you develop in response to the vaccine are passed on to your developing baby during pregnancy.

The best way to keep you and your baby healthy this flu season is to get your flu shot. For more information visit Pregnant? Get a Flu Shot.

Resources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Flu & Pregnancy
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Flu Vaccine Safety and Pregnancy
• Pregnant? Get a Flu Shot

Sponsored Content from Comcast

Qualifying households in the Twin Cities can get FREE internet under the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides a $30 monthly credit ($75/month in Tribal lands) toward internet and mobile services.

What started as emergency relief for Americans forced to work, learn and connect with loved ones remotely during the COVID-19 crisis, financial support to ensure broadband connectivity has gained more permanence under the Biden Administration’s infrastructure bill. The reason: 19 million Americans nationwide still do not subscribe to broadband with baseline speeds, according to the FCC. The greatest share comes from households earning less than $30,000 a year. 

Who qualifies for ACP?

If your household income is less than twice the federal poverty level– approximately $55,000 a year for a family of four or $27,000 a year for an individual – you will qualify for the benefit. Additionally, if you receive SNAP/EBT, Medicaid, or free and reduced-price school lunch, or if you receive one of many of the other federal assistance benefits, you would also qualify.

What are the best ways to use the $30 benefit?

Xfinity, the country’s largest broadband provider, is participating in ACP. Odds are quite good there are qualified households among the 60 million homes and businesses with access to Xfinity services, which has already connected a cumulative total of 10 million people since 2011 to low-cost internet through its Internet Essentials program. But ACP is a complete game-changer, effectively making high-speed internet free to qualified individuals after the discount is applied. Here are two smart ways to use the $30 benefit for Xfinity services.

1. High-Speed Internet: At a cost of $29.95 a month – which is completely covered by ACP – Internet Essentials Plus offers twice the download speeds – up to 100 MBPS a month – as its standard Internet Essentials service. The higher speeds improve the performance of video and music streaming, video calls and gaming, and comes with a free cable modem and Wi-Fi router.
2. Internet + One Line of Mobile: Qualified individuals can also stretch their $30 credit to cover all but $25 of Internet Essentials and one line of Unlimited data on Xfinity Mobile. How? Standard Internet Essentials service costs just $9.95 a month. If you add one line of Unlimited data on Xfinity Mobile at $45 a month, the cost is just $24.95 after you apply the $30 ACP credit. Xfinity Mobile’s 5G service is also included for all of its mobile customers, in addition to automatic connectivity to 21 million Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide.

 What’s the quickest way to sign up?

First, visit the National Verifier to check eligibility and obtain a National Verifier ID.

Once you have a National Verifier ID, there are three ways Comcast is making the ACP benefit easy to access and sign up for Xfinity Internet and mobile service:

 Online: New and existing Xfinity Internet or Internet Essentials customers can visit xfinity.com/acp.

• Call: Individuals can determine their eligibility and sign up for service by calling 1-844-963-0231. Individuals can also speak to a dedicated ACP Enrollment and Support Center that is available from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. daily, with multi-lingual capabilities to assist anyone interested in the program.
• Visit an Xfinity Store: People will be able to visit 500+ Xfinity Stores nationwide to sign up for Internet Essentials Plus, a service that includes 100 Mbps speed, a cable modem, access to millions of Wi-Fi hotspots, and unlimited data for $29.95 per month. During their visit, customers can also learn more about how to enroll in ACP to get Internet service for free.

“With the world becoming even more digital, it is crucial that everyone has the needed resources and opportunities to excel,” said Kalyn Hove, Regional Senior Vice President, Comcast Midwest. “The Affordable Connectivity Program is a once in a lifetime opportunity that Comcast is proud to be participating in and offer to any of our customers who qualify so they can benefit from the connectivity needed to function in today’s world.”

Sponsored Content from Metro Transit

Sarah Cohen values the solar panels and heat pumps that help reduce energy use at the Minneapolis apartment building where she lives.

Another green feature she appreciates – the Residential Pass that she and more than 70 other tenants at Green Rock Apartments receive. The unlimited ride passes are purchased and distributed by the building owner, allowing Cohen and her neighbors to ride transit as often as they need to at no direct cost.

“It ranks pretty darn high among the amenities,” said Cohen, who rides the bus when it’s too cold to bike. “I think this is a really wonderful addition, and I’ll save up to $60 a month in what I would have spent on transportation.”

Stories like Cohen’s are becoming more common as Metro Transit’s Residential Program slowly expands. The program was piloted in 2019 and is now being marketed to multi-family housing owners across the region.

Through the program, property owners pay $14 a month to buy passes for each building unit. For building owners, the passes are another selling point and a way to win city support for new projects without the addition of costly parking stalls.

So far, six properties have bought Residential Passes from Metro Transit for a total of 225 units.

The passes can be a great strategy for attracting renters and are especially helpful to those living in affordable housing. Housing and transportation costs can account for more than half of an average household’s budget.

“Pairing the Residential Pass with affordable housing is a powerful way to improve financial security by tackling both transportation and housing affordability,’’ said Michael Krantz, manager of Metro Transit’s Transit Oriented Development Office.

In Saint Paul, residents at CommonBond Communities’ Lexington Commons Apartments are using their Residential Passes to access jobs, food, and other services.

“It’s definitely a top-shelf amenity,” resident Philip Montesa said. “I do not have a vehicle, and I use public transportation on a daily basis.”

Pass program increases ridership

A 2019 Metro Transit pilot helped show that residents are more likely to ride transit with a Residential Pass. After six months:

– Nearly 60% of residents in four buildings used the transit passes they received

– Overall, renters took transit 50% more often

– Renters who didn’t already have a monthly pass took 78% more rides

How to participate

Property owners and managers who are interested in the Residential Pass program are encourage to email Tenille Warren or call 612-349-7318.

To say that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the way we do things would be an understatement. The coronavirus, which is still spreading, has infected nearly 620 million people globally, 6.5 million of whom have died. But as devastating has it has been, it has made health care experts and policymakers to start thinking ahead and prepare better in case another pandemic strikes, and also to look at how they can streamline screening procedures to detect highly contagious diseases before they spread across borders.

Before the pandemic, many of us only needed to leave home with house keys, a phone. But the list has grown to include masks and hand sanitizers. If you’re leaving home for a short while, forgetting some of those items is no big deal. You can easily turn around, or buy them at the corner store. But what happens when you are travelling internationally?

In June, my family and I missed a flight from San Francisco, California, to Kenya to visit relatives we hadn’t seen in many years. We had planned the trip for the summer of 2020, but the pandemic forced us to postpone it then and in 2021. When it became relatively safer to travel, it didn’t occur to us that the pandemic had changed travelling so much that we needed more than just vaccinations, masks, and sanitizers.

When we got to the airport, the airline refused to let us on the plane because we had neither registered with Kenya’s Ministry of Health, nor uploaded our proof of vaccination to Global Haven, a COVID-19 test and vaccination validation site of the United Nations Development Programme. Of course we learned that after we’d stayed in the queue for an hour to get to the desk. And, as fate would have it, the Kenyan website was down. By the time we got through, the plane had departed. The airline wanted more than $20,000 to book my wife and I, and our two children for a flight the following day, on top the $5,000 we would lose because we had bought our tickets from a third party.

Since then, I have heard from three friends who also missed their flights because they didn’t realize the extent to which COVID-19 has changed the way we travel.

Immigrant communities like ours aren’t often the primary targets of travel security and health advisories from government agencies. Because of our foreign origin, our needs are also very unique, compared to American-born travelers. Immigrants are also significantly less well-off financially, which might make paying to reschedule a flight very expensive, and even impossible, and ruin trips we’ve taken years to plan. As many of us get ready to travel home for Christmas, what are some of the steps we need to take to make sure our travel goes smoothly?

Recently, I posed that question two experts from Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), who were generous enough to give Mshale an exclusive interview tailored to our community. Kathryn Como-Sabetti is the epidemiology manager of the COVID-19 Epidemiology at MDH, who for nearly 20 years has worked on various projects, including disease surveillance and pandemic influenza planning. Como-Sabetti says that before traveling, it is important to research the COVID-19 requirements for not just your final destination, but also wherever you plan to make a stop, even if it’s for a layover.

“There are some countries that have no requirements, and there are some countries with very strict requirements,” she says. “If you’re having a long layover and you need to leave the airport, you may be required to show a negative COVID test, or your COVID testing history. So, having all of that paperwork as a part of your travel packet is really important.”

Dr. Elizabeth Dufort, a pediatric infectious diseases physician who currently serves as a medical epidemiologist at MDH, says a visit to a travel health clinic should be part of preparations for international travel for both adults and children.

“When I speak with friends or community members or patients, or families who are going back to visit friends and family, I urge them to think of it as part of the preparation,” she says. “When you start to think about getting your flight, you should also book that appointment and think of that as part of the overall cost of your trip.”

One of the misconceptions those of us who were born abroad often have is that because we are familiar with the environment back home, we do not need to take the same precautions as, say, tourists who are visiting Africa for the first time.

But Dufort, whose 15-year career includes working on global health projects in Kenya, says spending years away from the continent can weaken one’s immune system and make them just as vulnerable.

“You’re going to go, and you’re going to eat all the food you used to eat and drink the things you used to drink,” Dufort says. “I want you to have that experience with your family or your cousins and your friends. But after you live in the U.S. [for many years], you lose some of that immunity you had built up.”

Dufort says people who are traveling home after being away for a long time need to remember that there are things circulating in the environment that we rarely encounter in the United States. Numerous studies have shown that people who are visiting friends and family abroad have higher rates of returning with diseases like malaria, typhoid, and dengue fever, she says. Making sure that you’re cooking all your food thoroughly, washing fruits and vegetables, and drinking water bottled from a safe source, can keep your trip from becoming unpleasant, Dufort says.

“We want you to remain safe, but also to enjoy your trip and not be sick and holed up inside with fever and diarrhea,” she says.

Dufort adds that those who have children born in the United States should not forget that their immune systems are much weaker, which makes tolerance of disease-causing germs much lower. Taking preventive measures like obtaining antimalarial drugs and insect repellents is important. But what children do once they get to the destination is just as important in keeping them healthy. Because of their upbringing around pets, American children are also more likely than African children to get closer to animals, which puts them at higher risk of contracting rabies, Dufort says.

“[American-born] kids, are used to these animals that are friendly to pet could get injured by animals that aren’t necessarily pets but guard dogs,” she says. “They might pet an animal in a way it doesn’t like. So, it is important also to talk to children who are old enough to have this conversation, and to watch the younger children.”

So, you’ve followed all the advice and have returned to the United States. Is there anything more you need to do? Como-Sabetti says that if you feel sick, you should see your health care provider immediately. She says outbreaks like COVID-19 and measles have made Minnesota’s health systems to create a comprehensive patient screening process that includes questions that health care providers ask about recent travel history.

“Those screening questions are very, very important,” Como-Sabetti says. “Knowing someone’s travel history is so vital to knowing what kind of assessment they should have. I would encourage people to answer those questions honestly and openly.”

She says it is also important for patients to ask questions, and to volunteer information to their health care providers about anything in their travel history that might have put them at risk, but wasn’t asked during the screening process.

My family and I learned the hard way that international traveling in a time of COVID-19 requires more than tickets, passports, visas, masks, vaccinations, home test kits, and hand sanitizers. Fortunately, my wife insisted on speaking with the manager, who booked us on the next flight without any additional fees. (When you travel with small children, they can melt hearts). But that took four hours to negotiate. In the end, we still had to spend more than $500 on a hotel room near the airport because we were more than 60 miles from home.

My friends weren’t so lucky when they missed their flights. Two of them paid more than $1,000 each to change their flights. One of them canceled his travel completely and lost more than $1,500.

Below are some resources Como-Sabetti and Dufort recommend to make planning your international travel easier. I especially love the Packing Smart list from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Guidance for Travelers: International Travel & Infectious Disease
International Travel Health Clinics Serving Minnesota Residents
MDH Malaria Resources
CDC Travelers’ Health
CDC Travelers Destination Health Checklist
CDC Tips for Packing Smart
Docket: Minnesota State Immunization Records

Brooklyn Center held it’s 4^th annual Community Health Fair on Aug. 13, at the city’s Centennial Park. The event brought together community members for a day of events that included vendor booths, running and walking events, entertainment, activities for children, food, and of course health screening. Mshale’s Panashe Matemba-Mutasa was there to document it.

Have you experienced the taste of sweet Somali desserts? Looking for a place to find freshly made rotis (bread)? Or are you interested in exploring Somali and Middle Eastern cuisine? 

If you said yes, then you should head over to Durdur Bakery and Grocery store in south Minneapolis at 1552 E Lake Street. This popular mini supermarket on Lake Street is a home away from home for the Twin Cities Somali and Middle Eastern diaspora.

As soon as you step inside the shop, you are hit by the aroma of baked goods, spices, and fresh fruits. You’ll also find a flurry of activity as customers rush in and out, mothers urge their kids away from the mouthwatering displays and neighbors swap stories and family recipes while surveying the aisles.

Durdur Bakery has been around for 20 years, and it is a beehive of activity each day. “Our company started business in 2000 and has been busy since then,” Nur Hadi Ahmed, the manager of Durdur Bakery told Mshale during an interview.

The secret to its success, according to the seven Somali-American owners, is the growing Muslim community in the area and the owners’ ability to cater to their customers’ specific needs. This includes selling traditional spices, herbs, baked goods, and packaged products and not to forget their best-selling item ― halal camel meat.

What’s so special about halal meat? 

First and foremost, Muslims are only permitted to eat halal food that adheres to Islamic dietary laws. When it comes to meat and poultry, their food should be specifically slaughtered according to Islamic practices. Knowing this, the store’s owners make halal food accessible for Muslim families who may fail to find it elsewhere.

Moreover, many American Muslims have started to experiment with traditional Somali meat. This is why the exotic camel meat is coveted by the adventurous cooks and many Latino neighbors who love Somali food.

Friday is their busiest day as men come in to buy the meat for their weekend entertaining. There is also high demand from Somali restaurants in the area who order camel and goat meat by reservation. Harwanaag Restaurant at Seward, Hufan Restaurant on Lake and 13^th, Sanaag Restaurant at Mogadishu Mall and Hamdi Restaurant on Lake Street, are the four busiest restaurants where people flock right after Friday prayers. They rush to those restaurants so that they don’t miss out on the camel meat.

Camel meat is said to be healthier than other red meats such as beef, is leaner and a good source of protein and vitamin E.

Abdihafid Ibrahim is the current owner of Harwanaag Restaurant and the former owner of Ibrahim restaurant; he told us that he started cooking only five lbs. of camel meat daily, but their customers are increasing. “These days, we cook 25 lbs. of camel meat daily, he said. “The camel meat is over around 3 pm.”

Where does the camel meat come from?

Durdur sells fresh frozen camel meat that comes all the way from Australia. The camels have only one hump, which is often the first choice of Somalis who consider it the tastiest part of the meat. Their other favorite cuts of meat include the brisket, loin, and ribs.

“The meat here is fresher and cheaper compared to any other halal market in the area,” Ahmed said. “That’s why halal stores from surrounding states such as Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Colorado, prefer Durdur as their top supplier of halal products.”

What’s the best way to cook camel meat? 

Ingredients

4 thinly sliced camel rump steaks, (175g/6oz each)

½ lemon, large

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

½ tsp of cumin (optional)

1-2 tsp of ground allspice

1-2 cloves of garlic

¼ tsp of ginger

A dash of salt and black pepper

 Method

 First, thaw the frozen meat.

1. Then wash it thoroughly in the kitchen sink.
2. Marinate it with the allspice mix, ginger, garlic, cumin, salt, and pepper. Then rub the meat with lemon juice and zest.
3. Cover the meat and place it in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
4. Preheat the oil on the stove/grill, at medium heat.
5. Sear/grill each side of the marinated meat for 4-5 minutes.
6. Check meat for doneness with a meat thermometer.
7. Shift it to a serving plate and let it rest for 5 minutes.
8. Serve it and enjoy it.
9. (It’s lip-smacking good!)

The camel meat is best eaten with white rice cooked with spices and herbs. You can also whip up a hearty soup from camel bones and rib meat, with herbs and salt, when you’re under the weather.

Somalia might be miles away, but Durdur is close. So, if ever in the mood for this Somali delicacy, now you know where to go.

Ramadan is expected to begin on Saturday, April 2 in Minnesota according to AINA Fatwa Committee, a Minnesota based group of nine Imams. It is set to end on May 1 and followed with the celebratory Eid al-Fitr on either May 2 or May 3, 2022.

The Islamic calendar is based on lunar cycles, causing a change in when Ramadan starts and ends each year.

Ramadan is the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. Every year millions of Muslims around the world celebrate the month by fasting from sunrise to sunset every day to fulfill one of the five pillars of Islam.

The nightly Iftar dinner is the evening meal that ends the daylong fast during Ramadan.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Three Idaho women are suing the state in federal court over its expensive training requirement for professional hair-braiders.

The women, represented by the Institute for Justice, filed the lawsuit against the Idaho Barber and Cosmetology Services Licensing Board in Boise’s U.S. District Court on Tuesday, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Idaho is one of five states that still require cosmetology licenses for professional hair braiding. The licenses require 1,600 hours of training and can cost up to $20,000, even though cosmetology schools aren’t required to teach braiding techniques for naturally textured hair.

Scott Graf, spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, declined to comment on pending litigation.

The women who are bringing the lawsuit — Sonia Ekemon, Tedy Okech and Charlotte Amoussou — are all refugees from Africa and have more than 60 years of experience practicing African-style hair braiding between them, according to the Institute for Justice.

Ekemon, 40, learned to braid hair as a child while living in a refugee camp in Benin. She honed her skills over the years and eventually earned a professional hair-braiding license as a teenager before moving to the United States in 2000.

As an Idaho Central Credit Union employee, she thought offering her hair-braiding skills would be a good way to earn extra money — until she learned it was illegal.

“I am a single mother … my husband passed away from liver cancer,” Ekemon, a Boise resident, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “I have a mortgage and three little kids that I take care of and have to feed. This is what I have to do to feed my kids. I really need this.”

Cosmetology training largely focuses on how to cut, color and chemically treat hair. Only two of 110 questions on the written cosmetology exam are on braiding, and the practical exam doesn’t cover the topic at all, according to the Institute for Justice.

“I have a friend who actually attended cosmetology school,” Okech said. “She went to Paul Mitchell for a good two years. She said she spent $25,000 in schooling. … She didn’t learn how to braid hair. In fact, they wanted her to teach the rest of the class how to braid hair.”

The requirement means it can be difficult to find anyone offering hair braiding services. People who braid hair without a license are afraid to advertise. Okech said a number of traveling nurses recently came to her because they couldn’t find any professional braiders.

Ekemon said she has received a flood of requests from one group in particular: white parents with adopted Black children. The parents didn’t know how to braid hair themselves and struggled to find a salon that offered the service.

“Most of the time, the mothers say they don’t know how to take care of African-American kids’ hair, so I’m very happy to help them,” Ekemon said.

The Institute for Justice has worked to end braiding license requirements in 31 states through lawsuits and legislation.

“Instead of getting their businesses off the ground, hair braiders in Idaho are tangled in senseless regulation,” said Dan Alban, Institute for Justice senior attorney. “Idaho should not be putting entrepreneurs out of business with unnecessary licensing laws.”

Ghanaian-American author Rosemond Sarpong Owens celebrated the launch of her new children’s book, “The Extraordinary Educator: Dr. Delores Henderson” on Saturday alongside the person that inspired it, Dr. Delores Henderson, a retired school administrator with the St. Paul Public Schools.

Dr. Henderson was the longest serving school administrator in the state of Minnesota when she retired in 2018. She become recognized as the first Black National Distinguished Principal for the State of Minnesota. One of the fruits of her long career is current Saint Paul Mayor, Melvin Carter, a product of the Saint Paul Public Schools. Mayor Carter was among the guests present during the book launch.

Owens says she was at a civic event with her husband where Dr. Henderson was present and was awed at the reverence and respect directed at the longtime administrator. She said she waited patiently until everyone was done speaking to her so she could also meet her.

“I left that encounter quite inspired and determined that others who didn’t know her, especially young Black girls, would do, so they can see what is possible,” said Owens.

Owens, who spoke to Mshale after the book launch, said the book seeks to inspire the next generation of young girls and women to aspire to live life to the fullest because it shows a young determined Dr. Henderson rising from humble beginnings to a place of dedicated service and influence.

The author who is also a mother to three children says what she loved about Dr. Henderson was her love for the children and families she served.

“As a child, I suffered from many insecurities about my skin color, facial features, and hair texture. Not until my teens did I see someone who looked like me in a book. That narrative must change,” Owens said. “To see people who look like you makes you feel included, that you belong, and that can inspire and empower all of us.”

A turning point for Owens came when she was in Spain attending the University of Madrid. She needed reference materials on Africa and she was appalled at what she found at the university’s library.

“They only had material that described Africa in the prehistoric times,” Owens said. “I was left shocked because what the material was describing is not the Ghana I grew up in.”

She says she did not consider herself a writer at that point but she had a reputation as a good storyteller, recalling how in walks home from school back in Ghana, fellow students would be captivated with her tales that they would find themselves miles from home.

In later years, based on the reputation from her days growing up in Ghana, the author ascribed herself the moniker the “Lion’s Historian” in reference to the quote by famed African author, Chinua Achebe: “Until the lions have their own historians, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

It was after her arrival in the United States where she has lived in the past two decades that she decided to put her stories and ideas into paper becoming an author. In the process, she also got involved with Books for Africa, the largest shipper of donated school textbooks to Africa and at one time serving as the first Black woman president of the board of directors for the storied organization.

“The Extraordinary Educator” will join the Heritage Collection, which is a series of children’s history books to retell the stories of Black and African ancestors to reduce the stigmas of internalized racism that stems from mainstream standards.

The Extraordinary Educator: Dr. Delores Henderson (The Heritage Collection) is available on Amazon for purchase in hardcover or e-reader.

COVID-19 vaccines help protect you against COVID-19 disease. As of early February, more than 46 million doses have been given to people in the United States. As more people in your community get vaccinated, the disease will begin to go away.

Even though scientists were able to produce a vaccine quickly, the COVID-19 vaccines were carefully tested before they could be used. With extra funding from the federal government, the process from testing the vaccines to making the vaccines was able to happen faster and more efficiently. It is important to know that steps to check for safety were not skipped.

A vaccine can be used only if the studies show that the vaccine is safe and works. Learn more about how the COVID-19 vaccines were made at How COVID-19 Vaccines Are Made (https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/vaxprocess.pdf). Translations are available at About COVID-19 Vaccine (https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/vaccine/basics.html#make).

Not only are the COVID-19 vaccines safe, but they work! The COVID-19 vaccines are very good at protecting people from getting sick from COVID-19. And even if someone who is vaccinated does get sick with COVID-19 disease, the vaccines prevent severe disease and hospitalizations most of the time. Because the vaccines do not work 100% of the time, it is important to keep wearing a mask, staying 6 feet from others, and washing your hands often until many more people are vaccinated.

Many people are wondering when they can get vaccinated. You can learn who is eligible to get vaccinated at Who’s Getting Vaccinated? (https://mn.gov/covid19/vaccine/whos-getting-vaccinated/index.jsp). When it is your turn to get a COVID-19 vaccination, you can find where to get vaccinated at Find My Vaccine (https://mn.gov/covid19/vaccine/find-vaccine/index.jsp). The COVID-19 vaccine is free to everyone; insurance and immigration status do not matter.

Everyone will have an opportunity to get vaccinated, it will just take time. We know that for some, it is really hard to wait right now. We ask that you be patient. Vaccine is constantly being made and distributed, and there will start to be more vaccine available to Minnesotans later this spring. Continue to tune into your local news source, and follow the Minnesota Department of Health’s social media. These will be good sources of information when there are COVID-19 vaccine updates.

Want to learn more about COVID-19 vaccine? Find resources and answers to common concerns and questions at About COVID-19 Vaccine (https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/vaccine/basics.html).