SALT LAKE CITY – Utahns aged 65 and over will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine next month, Gov. Spencer Cox announced Thursday.
On March 1, vaccine eligibility will be extended to Utahns over the age of 65. Utahs who have certain comorbidities – but not all comorbidities – will also be eligible for the vaccine starting March 1, Cox said.
The weekly vaccine allocation in Utah could potentially quadruple by March if two other pharmaceutical companies are able to distribute their vaccines by then, Cox said. The state’s allocation is about 50,000 this week, already up significantly from about 33,000 last week, according to Cox.
He pointed out that this week marks an important milestone in the Utah virus site: the total number of vaccine doses given has exceeded the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. There were now 362,701 photos between the first and second doses of the vaccine, compared to 351,273 total cases of COVID-19 since the Utah pandemic began early last year.
“We’re trying to be more viral than the virus, and it’s happening,” Cox said.
All information on extending eligibility is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine-distribution.
Cox stressed that Thursday is just an announcement about expanding eligibility – those people will not be able to make appointments yet to receive the vaccine and should not contact the local health department, he added.
Spencer Cox, Governor of Utah, with Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson and Utah State Department of Health epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn offered an update on the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday morning. Watch the replay of the event below.
Vaccine eligibility is expanding
Currently, all Utahians over the age of 70 are eligible for the vaccine. About 84,000 people in this category have been vaccinated so far, which is about 35 percent of that age group, Cox said.
The governor said it is expected to take two to three weeks to vaccinate the remaining 70-year-olds over whom they want the vaccine, for a total of about 240,000 people.
The federal government recently increased its weekly vaccine allocation in Utah to about 40,000 and increased it again by about 5% this week, Cox said. In addition, the state government recovered thousands of doses from federal government pharmacy partners who were tasked with vaccinating staff and residents at long-term care facilities. Pharmacies had an excess of vaccine, so the state recovered some doses and redistributed them for use.
The federal government also delivers additional equipment with each round of Pfizer vaccine so that vaccine administrators can extract the sixth dose from each vial of the vaccine, Cox said.
All of these changes have meant that about 50,000 doses of the vaccine were delivered to Utah this week. Small allocations are expected to increase each week, Cox said.
“Every week our numbers increase significantly, and that’s the big job of our local health departments,” Cox said.
With additional production promises from Pfizer and Moderna, which currently manufactures the vaccine, as well as vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, which have not yet been approved by federal regulators, the vaccine allocation in Utah could expand massively. later this spring, Cox said.
That means Utah could receive 150,000 to 200,000 doses by March or April, Cox said.
“(That) just changes the game for all of us,” he said.
Cox estimated that the extended eligibility will amount to approximately 400,000 additional people who have access to the vaccine. If the Utah allowance is increased to 150,000 or 200,000 by the first week of March, it would take several weeks to get through that population, at which time vaccine eligibility would be open to more people, starting with those most at risk and vulnerable. in the state, the governor added.
In addition, some Smith and Walmart pharmacies will begin offering vaccination schedules starting Feb. 11, according to Government Lt. Diedre Henderson. State leaders hope that if people already have a meeting with the local health department to get vaccinated, they will keep that appointment instead of making a new one at Smith or Walmart, Henderson said.
As the state prepares for rapid expansions in vaccine distribution, a call for volunteers is expected in the coming weeks, Henderson said. People will be needed to help administer the vaccine as well as manage traffic at vaccination centers and other tasks, she said.
There are likely to be some difficulties in scheduling vaccination schedules as the state expands distribution, so Utahns is asked to be patient, Cox and Henderson said.
“We’re going to do something incredible here, but it’s not going to be easy,” Henderson said. “Please be careful because we will need you.”
New COVID-19 cases
The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah rose 1,273 on Thursday, with another 14 deaths reported, according to the Utah Department of Health. Three of those deaths occurred before Jan. 14, but were still being investigated by the Utah state doctor’s office.
The Department of Health now estimates that there are 33,948 active cases of the disease in Utah. The average continuous number of seven positive days a day is now at 1,264, according to the health department. The positive daily test rate for that time period is now 16.5%.
State Department of Health epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said on Thursday that seven-day averages had dropped since last week, as in the past few weeks. It is promising to see these numbers decline, she added.
“We still have work to do, but we’re moving in the right direction,” Dunn said.
Utahans are encouraged to continue wearing masks and distance themselves socially, as variants of the COVID-19 virus are present in the state, she said.
There are 365 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 125 in intensive care, state data show. About 76% of the beds in the intensive care unit in Utah are occupied on Thursday, including about 78% of the beds in the intensive care units of 16 state reference hospitals. About 57% of non-ICU hospital beds are also filled, health department data show.
A total of 362,701 vaccines were administered in the state, up from 345,179 on Wednesday. Of these, 84,154 are the second dose of vaccine, according to the health department.
The new figures indicate a 0.4% increase in positive cases on Wednesday. Of the 2,054,230 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah so far, 17.1% tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests performed increased by 13,702 since Thursday, and 9,419 of them were tests in people who had not been previously tested for COVID-19, according to the health department.
The 14 deaths reported on Thursday are:
- A man from Box Elder County, who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A man from Box Elder County who was between 65 and 84 years old and a resident of a long-term care facility
- A man from Davis County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- Two men from Salt Lake County, aged 45 to 64, who were hospitalized when they died
- A man from Salt Lake County, who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A man from Salt Lake County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was not hospitalized when he died
- A man from Utah County, who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A man from Washington County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A woman from Salt Lake County who was between 65 and 84 years old and a resident of a long-term care institution
- A woman in Salt Lake County who was over 85 years old and a resident of a long-term care facility
- A woman from Weber County who was between 45 and 64 years old and a resident of a long-term care institution
- A woman from Weber County, aged 65 to 84, who lived in a long-term care facility
- A Weber County woman over the age of 85 who lived in a long-term care facility
Thursday’s total offers Utah 351,273 confirmed cases in total, with 13,697 total hospitalizations and 1,711 total deaths from the disease. A total of 315,614 cases of Utah COVID-19 are now estimated to be recovered, according to the health department.
Methodology:
Test results now include data from PCR tests and antigen tests. Positive COVID-19 test results are reported to the health department immediately after confirmation, but negative test results may not be reported for 24 to 72 hours.
The total number of cases reported daily by the Utah Department of Health includes all COVID-19 cases since the onset of the Utah outbreak, including those currently infected, those recovering from the disease, and those who have died.
Recovered cases are defined as anyone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 three or more weeks ago and did not die.
The referral hospitals are the 16 hospitals in Utah with the capacity to provide the best COVID-19 healthcare.
State-reported deaths usually occurred two to seven days before they are reported, according to the health department. Some deaths may come from the back, especially if the person is from Utah but died in another state.
The Department of Health reports both confirmed and probable deaths in the COVID-19 case, as defined by the State Council and Territorial Epidemiologists. The number of deaths may change as case investigations are completed.
For deaths that are reported as COVID-19 deaths, the person would not have died if they did not have COVID-19, according to the health department.
The data included in this story primarily reflects the state of Utah as a whole. For more localized data, visit the local health district website.
More information on Utah health guidance levels is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-health-guidance-levels.
The information comes from the Utah Department of Health and coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts. For more information on how the Utah Department of Health compiles and reports COVID-19 data, visit coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts and scroll down to the “Data Notes” section at the bottom of the page.
Jacob Klopfenstein