COVID-19 vaccine priority group 2.3 becomes eligible March 15

BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) - The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare will move forward with its next COVID-19 vaccine priority group.

This is priority group 2.3 which will begin Monday, March 15.

This group will include:

• Food and agricultural workers including food processing workers
• USDA processing plant inspectors
• Grocery, convenience store and food pantry workers
• The Idaho National Guard
• Manufacturing, public transit U.S. Postal service workers
• Certain subset utility workers

It's important to note that quite a few people 65 and older still haven't gotten the vaccine and have had a hard time registering.

Only 47% of them have had at least one shot.

"It will probably be a more gradual opening up, so for example people 50 and older with underlying health condition or adults 60 and older, it will be a more measured opening up," Dr. Christine Hahn said. "We hope to avoid having just a huge crush of people and that just make a huge amount of frustrated people who may give up, and we don't want people to give up. We want people to know that when we say their eligible that they will get a vaccine shortly after that."

State health officials say they are working with FEMA and other organizations to help with the registration process.

They will be introducing a more user-friendly version of online registration in the coming week.