Over 59,000 first and second COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered last week in Idaho. Soon, even more people will be able to get the vaccine if they want.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced Group 2.3 can start receiving vaccinations starting March 15. As many as 134,000 people are in this group.
Idaho will see an increase in doses as the Johnson and Johnson vaccine will bring 13,300 doses to Idaho this week, which will then be allocated to local public health districts.
“We do need more vaccine in the state. Providers have been telling us they could do more vaccinations if they just more vaccine and so I think this will help a lot and hopefully impact the waiting lists that we know are still out there in some of the health districts,” State Epidemiologist Christine Hahn said.
With the approval of Group 2.3 eligible to be vaccinated soon, officials say the state is still on track to have the general public eligible by April.
“It is likely that around April 1 we will be able to move into a group 3 if group 2.3 goes as expected, but we just have to kind of wait and see. I think our feeling right now is that we're still on track for an April 1 broadening as is currently mentioned on our website," Hahn said.
“We expect to be over 50,000 doses a week in the state and probably closer to 55,000 doses, and that has allowed us to accelerate the timelines affect positively getting to group 3. We will likely be getting to group three around the first of April,” DHW Director Dave Jeppesen said.
Johnson and Johnson are shipping out all doses this week, so Idaho expects no vaccine from them next week, or until they are on a regular production schedule. It is estimated Idaho will have 55,000 doses a week between all three providers by the end of March.
