South Central Health District to Get COVID-19 Vaccine This Week
UPDATE: St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center confirmed the shipment of COVID-19 vaccine arrived this morning in Twin Falls.
TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KLIX)-The Magic and Wood River valley region is set to get 975 doses of a new COVID-19 vaccine intended for health care workers this week.
The South Central Public Health District announced Monday it is expected to get the first shipment of the Pfizer and BioNTech created vaccine for the coronavirus from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare sometime this week. Idaho's COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee determined Idaho health care workers would be the first to receive the vaccine. “This is not enough vaccine to offer to every one of our frontline workers, but it’s a good start,” said Josh Jensen, SCPHD public health program manager. “We are hopeful additional vaccine shipments will arrive in the coming weeks, but for now, we are doing everything we can to make this first shipment of vaccine cover as much of our district as possible.”
SCPHD is working with area health care facilities to schedule vaccine clinics for workers, however because of the complex conditions needed for the vaccine to stay viable the health district will not ship it until hospitals are ready for it. The vaccine has to given in two doses and because it is not clear when the next shipment will be sent, SCPHD will hold back half of the first shipment until another shipment is confirmed. The health district said once the first phase of distribution is complete they'll begin working on getting the vaccine to the general public.