BOISE, Idaho — Idaho is continuing to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine across the state to first responders, K-12 teachers and staff, daycare workers and others in the first phase of vaccinations.
So far, 96,896 doses of the vaccine have been administered to date and 81,210 people in Idaho have received the vaccine. Idaho Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen says at the end of last week, Idaho had received 181,100 doses and administered 51 percent of them. The national average is 53 percent.
Jeppesen and other top Idaho health experts took part in a media briefing Tuesday to update the public about the COVID-19 vaccine in Idaho.
He said many more Idahoans will be eligible to get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine next week when Phase 2 starts, but he warned it's going to take time to get to all of them.
"I want to talk about February 1st for just a minute, which is when those 65 and older become eligible for the vaccine," Jeppesen said. "There are roughly 269,000 people in Idaho who are 65 and older. We only receive about 21,000 doses a week. That means most of that group will not be vaccinated on February 1st or even the first week. We ask for your patience as everyone 65 and older who wants the vaccine will be able to do so, but those appointments will happen over the coming weeks."
The state was working on a scheduling tool called PrepMod to help people get connected to local vaccination clinics. But Jeppesen says they found it to be redundant with what is currently taking place in local public health districts, so instead of using this tool the state is enhancing its website to clearly explain who is eligible for vaccines and connect them to local public health district websites and call centers where they can make appointments with vaccination clinics in their area.
There may be some good news on the horizon. Public Health Administrator Elke Shaw-Tulloch said they remain hopeful that more COVID-19 vaccines will be made available to Idaho in the coming weeks and months.
"We're hopeful that we'll see an increase in vaccine available to us by late February or March," she said. "So if any additional types of vaccine are authorized, it will allow us the opportunity to vaccinate more people at one time. We are asking for your patience as appointments are being scheduled across the state."
She urges people to book not to book multiple appointments with more than one provider, and to keep that appointment. This will help ensure that people get vaccinated as quickly as possible, and prevent any wastage of the vaccine.
State epidemiologist Dr. Christine Hahn said Idaho is working to get the vaccine out as fast as it can, but also do it in a safe and equitable fashion. She admitted they are worried about new variants and what that will mean to the vaccination process.
"We're very pleased that so far we've had very few doses that have had to be thrown away because they couldn't find someone to vaccinate or because there some sort of error in its handling," Hahn said. "We've had 26 doses in the state, we'd rather it be zero."
Hahn said a one-dose vaccine made by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which is owned by Johnson and Johnson, is nearing government approval and would be a lot easier to administer since it does not require freezers. That vaccine could get emergency use authorization in February.
"It's going to take a long time, weeks, to get all our seniors vaccinated," Hahn said, "we know we'd much rather have been vaccinated more quickly, but if we have a new vaccine out there, especially only one that takes one dose, everything's going to speed up, so we're very hopeful."
Hahn said that while the main goal is to ramp up vaccinations, the safety of Idahoans will always be the top priority.
"Even though we feel as pressed as anyone to get this out as quickly as possible we absolutely can't sacrifice safety, not only is that wrong for the patients but it could also really erode trust in the vaccine if we had safety incidents where mistakes were made that jeopardized their safety," she said.