Little calls for strict accounting of vaccines

Idaho Gov. Brad Little flexed his executive muscle Thursday to demand greater transparency of the state’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

At an afternoon news conference, Little said he wants vaccines administered within seven days of arriving in Idaho and issued an executive order aimed at tracking distribution of the shots he says will allow the state to eventually get back to normal.

Starting Monday, public health districts will be required to submit weekly reports to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare detailing the number of vaccine doses they have distributed to health care providers. The providers will be required to report daily the number of doses they have administered and the number of doses they have remaining in their inventory.

The data will be posted on the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s COVID-19 website starting Feb. 8. Little said he will closely monitor the reports to ensure vaccines are distributed quickly, fairly and safely, and he’ll be quick to step in to fix problems.

“We will be able to see in practically real time the number of doses each provider has received, administered and has in inventory to demonstrate our commitment to getting out doses as quickly as they come to Idaho,” he said. “We owe it to Idahoans to get shots in the arms of people who want it within seven days of doses coming into Idaho. Using the information that will be available through my executive order, we will be able to tell if a provider is not administering their allocated doses quickly enough so we can step in to help speed things up.”

All of the doses received by the state are shipped from manufacturers directly to local public health districts and then distributed to providers. Through Thursday, nearly 90,000 people in the state had received at least one shot. Most of them are health care workers, first responders, teachers and residents of nursing homes. Starting Monday, people 65 and older will be eligible to get the vaccine. But Little stressed demand is outstripping supply and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

“The senior population in Idaho includes more than 265,000 people. Idaho is receiving 24,000 first doses per week. Based on our current allocation, it could take nearly two months for eligible people to receive their first dose,” he said. “So I ask, please be patient.”

Little said he is pressing the Biden administration to make sure Idaho receives an equitable share of the vaccine that is distributed based on per capita adult population. He said the state is expected to receive about 24,000 first doses per week for the next three week.

Demand for the vaccine is high for people in the 65-and-older demographic, but Little said it could fall as younger people become eligible.

The governor received his first shot last week and said he was free of the mild side effects some people experience. He compared it to a shingles vaccination he received a few months ago and said the COVID-19 shot was “a walk in the park” by comparison.

Little is concerned that it may be more difficult for people in rural areas with limited access to pharmacies or health care providers to get vaccinated. Once more vaccines become available, Little said he is prepared for health districts, with the help of some of the resources he tapped in previous executive orders such as the Idaho National Guard, retired doctors and nurses, and people who are still in training to become doctors and nurses, to put on clinics in small towns.

“The young lady that gave me my vaccination was a nursing student. We have really expanded the workforce to do it and we can scale that up.”

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said people are not required to be residents of the state to receive a vaccine once they are eligible. That means people who may live in Clarkston but work in Lewiston or perhaps use an Idaho health care provider won’t have to negotiate extra red tape.

“If somebody has an appointment and is signed up and happens to live in Washington and work in Idaho, we don’t want to get in the middle of that. We are not opening it up for anybody from any state to come, but we are also not putting any prohibitions in place that would (be) a barrier for those that live in cross-border communities.”

There were 19 new cases of COVID-19 reported in north central Idaho on Thursday, including eight each in Nez Perce and Latah counties, two in Clearwater County and one in Idaho County. Whitman County had 14 new cases and Asotin County had five new cases.

The Lapwai School District plans to return to full-day, in-person learning March 1. The district announced the decision this week after the Nez Perce Tribe’s COVID-19 positive testing rate fell to its lowest level on the reservation since September.

Last week, there were only seven active cases of COVID-19, accounting for a 9.2 percent positive testing rate.

The district will continue to offer remote-only learning opportunities for families who do not feel comfortable sending their kids back to school full time.

Students at Lincoln Middle School in Clarkston will switch to an a.m.-p.m. model Monday, which will provide four days of face-to-face classes a week. Students who were attending classes on A days will attend the morning sessions from 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on weekdays with the exception of Wednesday, while B day students will attend afternoon sessions from 12:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Wednesdays will continue to be a student support day.

Transportation will be provided for both groups of students, but the locations and pickup times for the afternoon bus routes may be modified slightly. Parents will receive information about the changes as soon as they’ve been made. Both groups will also be provided breakfast and lunch. Students in the afternoon session will be given a take-home breakfast for the following day.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.