MISSOULA — As we near the one year mark since Montana reported its first coronavirus case, local leaders are reflecting on where we started, and how far we've come.
That was the case at Monday’s Missoula City Club meeting as representatives from the healthcare industry, higher education, and business realm offered their take on where Missoula stands at this moment in time.
We’re moving forward, and making progress but according to Joyce Dombrouski, Chief Executive of Providence Montana, we have a long road ahead.
“We're willing to give it to every single person in 1B and move to 1C as fast as we possibly can, we just don't have the vaccine,” Dombrouski said.
Dombrouski described an instability in the ability to plan.
But this issue isn’t only a challenge for Missoula County, the nationwide demand for the vaccine just doesn’t meet the supply right now. So, Dombrouski says we have to work incrementally, focusing on one group of people at a time, and right now that’s our most vulnerable population in Phase 1B.
As the situation with vaccine supply and distribution changes on a daily basis, Dombrouski is pleading with the public to look online for answers to their questions before tying up the phone lines.
“We'll never not answer the phone. We'll give you the best information we can at the time,” Dombrouski said. “And that really the bottom line is the vaccine supply remains unpredictable. And until we get that predictability we're really going, almost day by day.”
Information regarding the pandemic and vaccine distribution in Missoula County can be found here.