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Supply issues putting Gallatin Co. behind in COVID-19 vaccinations

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Posted at 9:41 AM, Feb 03, 2021
and last updated 2021-02-03 11:41:52-05

BOZEMAN — If you’ve been following vaccination numbers in the state, you may have noticed Gallatin County falls far behind other counties with similar populations.

MTN News spoke with Gallatin City-County Health Officer Matt Kelley, who says the numbers are true.

Gallatin County is behind in vaccinations because the county hasn’t received as many doses as other counties for several reasons.

”A lot of the numbers that you’re seeing in that dashboard right now are being driven by the 1a population. And so those are direct health care providers, nursing homes and those kinds of places," Kelley said.

"So, you have towns like Billings and Missoula where they have two hospitals that have a lot more, significantly more health care providers who got those 1a allocations,” Kelley added.

Kelley also says many of those places were given the Pfizer vaccine, which has more doses per bottle, so they were able to given hundreds more vaccines out to their residents.