Gov. Little signs executive order to speed up vaccine rollout

BOISE — Gov. Brad Little signed a new executive order today requiring local public health districts and health care providers to regularly report the number of vaccine doses they have been allocated, how many shots they have given, and how many doses they have in inventory, to ensure vaccine is getting out in a timely fashion.

The governor’s “Transparency in the Administration of the COVID-19 Vaccine” executive order is available here.

“Safety and transparency are paramount in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccine in Idaho,” Little 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.”

Little said he will review the information daily to ensure doses are distributed equitably across Idaho and that providers and local public health districts have operations in place to be able to give shots within seven days of the doses arriving.

The new information will be publicly available for Idahoans to view online by Feb. 8 at https://coronavirus.idaho.gov/.

Little also urged patience among Idahoans when the 65-and-older population can begin making appointments on Feb. 1 to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

“I want to be clear — there is still a big gap between supply and demand at this point. 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,” Little said. “So I ask, please be patient.”

Little also said he is pressing the Biden Administration to make sure Idaho receives more doses of vaccine as quickly as the supply chain ramps up.

Over the past 45 days, more than 89,000 Idahoans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.