With Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s COVID-19 vaccination plan accelerating, doses have been administered to over 33,000 healthcare workers and long-term care facility staff and residents across every health district in the state.
Public Health – Idaho North Central District, which encompasses the Latah, Clearwater, Idaho, Lewis and Nez Perce counties, has distributed more than 3,450 doses.
The Idaho COVID-19 resources page reports 49,555 Idahoans have received only their first dose. 11,778 have received both.
In Latah County, 212 people have received their first vaccine dose. 277 have received their second. Despite having similar populations, some counties have had more or less vaccinations than Latah County.
While Idaho’s seven health districts are all following the plans set by Little and the COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee, District 2’s Public Information Officer Scott Schlegel explained that the apparent uneven distribution is based on community partners within counties.
Community partners and hospitals that administer the vaccines in their areas each receive their own separate shipments. This leads to differences from county to county.
On Jan 12, Little shared his decision to open the next phase of vaccine rollout to teachers, frontline workers and those 65 and older.
The press release noted that, “The State of Idaho is receiving a disproportionately lower share of vaccine compared to other states because the federal government is not allocating vaccine on a per-capita basis.”
Peter Mundt, director of community relations and marketing at Gritman Medical Center, explained that vaccine distributions have gone through separate rounds at the hospital.
Those who were first to receive a dose on Dec. 1 had to wait the appropriate period to receive their second dose. A second group at Griman received their first doses Jan. 5.
The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines both require two doses. According to Mundt, the Moderna vaccine requires a 28 day window between doses while the Pfizer-BioNTech requires 21 days.
Group 3, which includes 16-64 year-olds with medical conditions that increase the risk of complications from COVID-19, is expected to begin vaccinations late March or early April. The general public is expected to have access to the vaccine in May.
“For healthy college students, you can expect to receive the vaccine with the general public,” Schlegel said. “Our estimate is that we would be reaching the general public in May 2021.”
Little has recently spoken out against discrepancies with the number of vaccines received by the federal government.
“Like all governors, I am disappointed in the news today that the federal government will not immediately meet its commitment to states for the large increase of vaccine doses we expected to receive,” Little tweeted.
With uncertainty remaining, the district hopes to stay on track with vaccinations.
“Our hope for the summer is that everyone who will want to receive the vaccine will have that opportunity by early summer,” Schlegel said. “And that we can return to somewhat normalcy as we go on… the more people that take the vaccine the more easy that transition will be.”
Haadiya Tariq can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @haadiyatariq