DPHHS Announces COVID 19 Vaccination Plan Submitted to CDC

The Montana Department of Health and Human Services announced on Monday that Montana’s COVID 19 vaccine plan was submitted to the Centers for Disease Control last week.

Public Information Officer Jon Ebelt provided details.

“Last Friday, the Department of Public Health and Human Services submitted Montana's draft COVID-19 vaccination distribution plan to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said Ebelt. “This is one step a very important step in the process of preparing for when the vaccine does become available for COVID-19.”

Ebelt said the CDC will be evaluating Montana’s vaccination plan.

“That's our draft plan,” he said. “We expect to hear back from CDC on the very near future, possibly next week with feedback and other suggestions, and so we'll just continue to improve the plan. We'll also be reaching out to our external partners in the state to get feedback and make improvements and preparations as we go forward.”

Ebelt said the plan is in its infancy, and a plan to distribute the vaccine to the most vulnerable groups is still being developed.

“It's broken out into three phases,” he said. “Initially, as more is known in the coming weeks and months, the plan will certainly be tweaked and updated, and certainly we will be keeping the public informed. I don't anticipate there being enough to distribute it to everybody at the beginning initially, but it will be a phased approach to start out with and then we'll just kind of go from there.”

Ebelt said the most vulnerable will receive the vaccinations first while those who are most healthy will be vaccinated when there is enough supply.