New dashboard shows vaccinations, by county, in state

Montana has created a new dashboard on its Covid-19 website that shows how many people have been vaccinated in any given county in the state.

“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,” Gov. Greg Gianforte said. “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.”

Based on the dashboard, Flathead County has a long way to go toward vaccinating the majority of its population.

So far the county has fully immunized 1,272 people and 4,042 more have received the first dose.

That amounts to 65.4 doses per 1,000 people so far. The number of people eligible for vaccination is 81,238.

There have been 9,897 recorded cases of the illness with at least 651 people currently infected.

That number however is likely low, as not all people who have the illness get tested.

Flathead County has the dubious distinction of now having the second-most active cases in the state, second only behind Yellowstone County, though another 20,000 doses were expected to be administered this week statewide.

Statewide there have been 1,151 deaths, 86,274 recovered and currently 129 people are hospitalized.

Vaccinations are available for people in Tier 1a and Tier 1b currently by appointment only.

Tier 1 a is for frontline healthcare workers and Tier 1b is for people over 70 and others with pre-existing conditions.

Folks in those tiers can sign up at: https://www.flatheadhealth.org

The vaccination map can be viewed at https://montana.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=7c34f3412536439491adcc2103421d4b