Minnesota gets another 1 million at-home test kits, offer boosters at school clinics

(ABC 6 News) – Governor Tim Walz’s office said Friday that Minnesota is getting another 1 million over-the-counter BD Veritor at-home rapid test kits for schools and child care providers.

BD Veritor At-Home is the sixth overall test – and second rapid test – the state has made accessible to schools and families. The test is an individual rapid antigen test, and Minnesota expects to receive all one million tests before the end of the year.

Beginning as early as December 6, Minnesota will also offer boosters at multiple state-run and state-hosted 5- to 11-year-old vaccine clinics, including those hosted at schools. Roughly 35 state school-based vaccination clinics for ages 5-11 will begin offering booster shots to parents of children receiving their first or second dose in December and the first week of January. Additional 5-11 vaccine clinics will begin offering boosters as planning continues.

Minnesota is already offering booster doses at the Mall of America Community Vaccination site, including walk-up appointments to visitors and parents of children receiving their vaccine. Last week, in addition to 3,256 vaccine doses administered to children 5- to 11-years-old, more than 800 booster doses were administered at the Mall of America community vaccination site.

Minnesota continues to be a national leader in boosters and ranks second in the country for percent of fully vaccinated people with booster doses, trailing only Vermont. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 35% of fully vaccinated Minnesota adults have received boosters, and providers across the state have administered more than 1.1 million booster and third doses.