Valley County to Enter Phase 1B of Governor's COVID-19 Vaccine Plan

The Valley County Health Department announced the county entered phase 1B of the state's COVID-19 vaccination plan on Jan. 21. The transition marks a shift in vaccine priority from healthcare workers to citizens in high-risk categories such as the elderly and those with medical conditions.

In order to receive the vaccine, residents must contact the health department to be added to the list. The health department has already started planning for mass vaccination events to include one scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 27 as of press time.

The requirements to qualify in phase 1B are as follows: Persons aged 70 years and older; American Indians and other people of color who may be at elevated risk for COVID-19 complications; and persons aged 16-69 with high-risk medical conditions. Qualifying medical conditions include Cancer, Chronic kidney disease, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), Down Syndrome, heart conditions (heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies), immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant, severe Obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2), sickle cell disease, type 1 & 2 diabetes mellitus.

On a case-by-case basis, medical providers may include individuals with other conditions that place them at elevated risk for COVID-19 related complications. If an individual has already called Valley County Health Department to get on the Phase 1B list, please the health department is asking them to not call again and not to fill out the required online form at the below link.

 If you qualify for Phase 1B and have not called VCHD, please call us at 228-6261 OR fill out the link below -- do not do both:

 https://valleycountyhealthglasgowmt.formstack.com/forms/phase_1b_covid19_vaccine_list

 In a release to the public, the health department stated, "Montana will receive a very limited number of COVID-19 vaccine doses and thus Valley County will receive a severely limited supply of COVID-19 vaccine. The current estimation is 100 doses of COVID-19 a week for the next weeks to months. Valley County's persons who are in the 1B category for COVID-19 vaccine are estimated to be 2600 people. As you can see, 100 doses a week will not get us vaccinated very quickly.

"We need everyone to be patient. VCHD staff will call to schedule 1B persons through a random, computer generated selection of persons who are on our list. Many people called our office to be placed on this list prior to publication or advertising of the need to call. Several of our office personnel answer phone calls and take names at the same time. Every person is important to us and is deserving of a vaccine. We are distributing this vaccine as quickly and as fairly as possible."

In conjunction with the transition to phase 1B, Governor Greg Gianforte rolled out a COVID-19 vaccination tracking dashboard which will allow residents to quickly gain access to the number of vaccinations administered across the state. Currently Montana has administered 81,157 doses of the various vaccines, but only 15,888 are fully immunized-meaning they have received the second shot in a series of two doses-as of press time the morning of Jan. 26.

Valley County had administered only 354 doses of the vaccine and only 26 have been fully inoculated against the COVID-19 causing coronavirus. According to the dashboard there are 5,917 vaccine eligible residents in the county.

In a press release released on Jan. 25, Gianforte said, "With over 77,000 safe and effective vaccine doses administered in Montana, we continue to make strides to protect the most vulnerable. We can make even greater progress if the federal government increases our supply. I encourage Montanans to use this dashboard to stay up to date on our progress to save lives and make the vaccine available to everyone who wants one."

The COVID-19 vaccine dashboard may be found at https://montana.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=7c34f3412536439491adcc2103421d4b.

With the vaccine rollout taking time across the country, Valley County has continued to add cases of COVID-19 despite a continuing mask mandate under Governor Gianforte alongside other measures. As of Jan. 25, the county had 20 active cases, 700 recovered cases and 10 residents who have passed away from the virus. Only 12 positive cases were added to the county's numbers between Jan. 19 and Jan. 25. The majority of whom were in their 30s, 50s and 60s.

To date, 1,185 Montanans have passed away as a result of contracting the coronavirus. Nationally the numbers have surpassed 420,000 Americans dead and globally over 2.1 million people are known to have succumbed to the disease.