Bullock Talks Vaccines and Jobs – Scolds Flathead County

Montana Governor Steve Bullock held a press conference in Helena on Tuesday to provide an update on the plan to distribute a COVID 19 vaccine when one becomes available.

“This just the first step and what will be an ongoing process is we work closely with local public health and health care facilities to effectively distribute and dispense a vaccine,” said Bullock. “We're in the process of forming a vaccine coordination team, which will serve as an advisory group of experts to assist the Department of Public Health and Human Services with refining the vaccination plan, ensuring that folks on the ground are ready to hit the ground running on day one.”

I, like many Montanans, was discouraged with the actions of the Flathead County Health Board, because we are seeing significant numbers there,” he said. “We do know what needs to be done more than anything else, and that is actually to follow the directives that have been put in place to date.

Bullock touted the increase in employment as the pandemic continues.

“The additional dollars the community contributed led to Montana’s steadily decreasing unemployment rate, which we announced today is returned to a near normal level of 5.3% for September,” he said. “It's lower than the national average currently of 7.9%.

In September, Montana posted strong employment gains of 4,250 over the month. Total employment has regained over 48,000 jobs since the April recession low and Montana has been the seventh best state in job performance during the COVID-19 recession.”

Bullock chided Flathead County for it’s failure to get citizens on board with COVID 19 protections.

“I, like many Montanans, was discouraged with the actions of the Flathead County Health Board, because we are seeing significant numbers there,” he said. “We do know what needs to be done more than anything else, and that is actually to follow the directives that have been put in place to date. On the one hand, this is I think there was notions of individual responsibility, but our individual responsibility is actually not only to take care of ourselves and our families, but the greater community as well. And we know that the steps that need to be taken in order to get there.”

There were 123 new confirmed cases of COVID 19 in Flathead County reported on Tuesday.