BOISE, Idaho — Idaho passed the million dose mark for the coronavirus vaccine on Monday, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced.
As of midday, 1,020,224 total COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the Gem State. About a third of the state's population - 591,954 Idahoans - have received at least one shot so far. Health and Welfare says that 460,117 of those people are now fully vaccinated, with 131,837 more waiting for the second shot in a two-dose series.
More than 2,000 people in Idaho have died of the infectious illness since the first COVID-19 case was reported in the state in March 2020.
The million-shot mark comes as new COVID-19 infections trend downward in Idaho, although health officials caution residents to continue wearing face coverings in public and limiting group sizes. All Idahoans aged 16 and older are eligible for the vaccine as of the beginning of April, and younger children are expected to become eligible before the beginning of the new school year.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said last week that every county in the state is currently below a 5% positivity rate, a metric used by health officials to determine how fast the disease is spreading within a community.
The state is currently in Stage 3 of the reopening plan, which caps gathering sizes at 50 people and encourages physical distancing among those who are not in the same household.
For more information on the state's vaccine rollout, visit the Idaho coronavirus information page here.
At KTVB, we’re focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the virus. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: www.ktvb.com/coronavirus.
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