Phone Calls Overwhelm Ravalli County Public Health
Over 2,600 phone calls were received by Ravalli County Public Health Monday, asking about COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination appointments, according to Director Tiffany Webber. She urged people to not call any Ravalli County office about vaccine information - including Public Health, the Emergency Operations Center or other offices.
There have been only 200 doses of vaccine received by the county so far, Webber said in a news release Monday afternoon. That supply of vaccines has been reserved for the initial 1a and 1b categories of the CDC vaccination inoculation schedule. Most of those inoculations have happened. She has no official word on when future vaccine supplies will be received. When information becomes available, the office will share it with the community, but she expects that at the current rate of distribution it will take up to 6 months to complete the vaccination process in Ravalli County.
There were 22 new positive tests for COVID19 over the weekend in the county and the valley has 141 active cases as of Monday afternoon. The advice remains the same - wear a mask, wash your hands and keep your social circles small and watch your social distancing.
U.S. Senator Jon Tester noted Monday only 2 percent of Americans have been vaccinated so far. He said that only 36 percent of the distributed vaccines have been administered in the U.S., while the number of infections has gone up. Test has joined other Congressmen in a letter to the US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, asking for more resources and support for states, localities and the public.