HELENA — Governor Greg Gianforte said during a news conference in Helena on Tuesday beginning on March 8, Montana will move to Phase 1B+ of the state COVID-19 vaccination plan.
Vaccines will become available for Montanans who are 60 years of age and older as well as people between 16 and 59 years old who have certain existing or chronic health conditions, such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, and liver disease.
The governor added that it's still projected that Montana will move into Phase 1C of the vaccination plan by spring or early summer.
Gianforte added that the state is "seeing encouraging signs in our vaccine supply."
He announced on Monday that Montana is scheduled to receive its first doses of the new Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine later this week. Montana will receive 8,700 doses of the single-dose vaccine, and counties will begin distributing those doses the week of March 8. Click here for more details. The state is expected to receive a total of about 60,000 COVID vaccines this week.
The number of Montanans who have received at least one of the two vaccine shots is 260,705 as of Tuesday morning, and the number who have received both shots and are now fully vaccinated is 90,463.
The number of active cases in the state is currently 1,559, according to MTN News, and there has been a cumulative total of 100,587 cases of the virus in Montana. Of the total cases, 97,643 have recovered.
There are currently 83 people hospitalized for treatment of the virus, and the cumulative number of hospitalizations is 4,591.
There were 168 new COVID cases reported in Montana on Tuesday, and the statewide death toll since the pandemic began is 1,385, according to data compiled by MTN News.
The numbers reported by MTN reflect the latest data from the Montana COVID website, along with supplemental data received from county health departments.