Boise’s health district has received 85,000 COVID-19 vaccines. How many have been given?
Idaho unveiled a new transparency tool on Monday afternoon that shows how many doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been doled out to providers across the state, as well as how many of those doses the providers have administered.
In a news release Monday, Gov. Brad Little’s office provided a link to the online tool. Little signed an executive order on Jan. 28 mandating that public health districts and health care providers disclose how much of their vaccine allotment they’d administered. The site will be updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The dashboard features charts for individual vaccine providers — such as local pharmacies and hospitals — and also shows an overall percentage for each of the state’s seven health districts.
As of Monday, Boise-based Central District Health had administered a larger percentage of its vaccine doses than five of the other health districts, with 84% of 85,000 doses already gone. Only South Central District Health, which covers eight counties in south-central Idaho, had administered a larger percentage (87% of its doses).
Overall, 71% of Idaho’s 266,852 vaccine doses have been administered.
St. Luke’s and Saint Alphonsus health systems are leading the way in vaccine dosages and distribution for Central District Health, which includes Ada, Elmore, Valley and Boise counties. St. Luke’s has administered 95% of its nearly 27,000 doses, while Saint Alphonsus has administered 98% of its nearly 24,000 doses.
Data show that many vaccine providers in Central District Health have distributed between 60% and 80% of their doses. More than a third of the providers received less than 1,000 doses. Albertsons’ Sav-on pharmacies and Meridian-based Red Rock Pharmacy appeared to be lagging the most in distribution, administering only about one-third of their allotted doses as of Monday. Sav-on had administered 36% of its 6,000 doses in the Central district, while Red Rock had administered 30% of its 400 doses.
According to the transparency tool, the North Central and Southwest health districts have distributed the least amount of vaccine, with 63% and 66% of their allotments administered, respectively.
Statewide, several providers appeared to be lagging in their rollout. Walgreens stores, for example, have received about 31,000 doses — more than any other provider — and administered only about one-third of that. Even some health district offices themselves had a large number of unused doses. Monday data showed the Panhandle Health District offices had administered 42% of their 16,000 doses. Offices of the Southwest District (which includes Canyon County) had distributed only 20% of their 4,355 doses, while North Central had distributed 26% of 5,192 doses.
The tool does not show when the vaccine doses were received and also does not provide information on planned mass vaccine events, which could account for large quantities of unused vaccines. Providers have 72 hours to report to the state after a dose has been administered, which also could cause a lag in numbers.
Little’s office noted that the tool is not meant to encourage Idahoans to “just show up expecting to receive” a vaccine at providers with unused doses. Currently, Idaho receives 25,000 doses per week.
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 5:32 PM.
