The next wave of COVID-19 vaccinations in Utah will begin on March 1, Governor Spencer Cox announced Thursday – with people 65 and older, and people with some severe and chronic health conditions, the next line to get photos.
These groups make up about 400,000 Utahns, Cox said at the weekly COVID-19 media briefing, and the state should be prepared for this influx when increased vaccine shipments arrive by April.
The federal government announced Tuesday that it will deliver another 5 percent of the current vaccine allocation in Utah – in addition to the 16 percent increase announced last week, Cox said. That’s a total of about 42,000 doses this week, he said, plus another 8,000 doses that the state received back from federal partners.
Utah plans to receive another 33,000 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine a week by the end of March, Cox said. Another 84,000 a week of the AstraZeneca version of the vaccine could arrive by April, Cox said.
That volume “just changes the game for all of us and that’s what we’re planning for,” he said. “That’s what we’re preparing for.”
The state will spend the rest of February, Cox and state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said, receiving doses for people already eligible for the vaccine – mostly people 70 and older.
As of Thursday morning, Cox said, about 35 percent of Utahns in that age group had their gunshots. “There are about 84,000 of you, and that’s only in a few weeks, so we’re on our way again to vaccinating those most at risk and saving lives,” Cox said.
Cox assured Utahns that people over the age of 70 who are struggling to get a vaccination meeting “will be able to get them” in the coming weeks.
Cox also begged people in the age group of 65 and over and people over the age of 18 with the specified underlying health conditions (see list below) not to call their county health departments yet. More information will come from the Utah Department of Health and local health departments in the next few weeks, he said.
Who still gets the vaccine?
Utahns 65 and over and those over 18 with certain serious and chronic health conditions will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on March 1.
• Beneficiaries of solid organ transplantation.
• Certain types of cancer.
• People who are immunocompromised (have a weakened immune system) from a blood, bone marrow or organ transplant; HIV; long-term use of corticosteroids or the use of other drugs that weaken long-term immunity.
• Severe kidney disease or dialysis or chronic stage 4 or 5 kidney disease.
• Uncontrolled diabetes.
• Severe obesity (body mass index over 40).
• Chronic liver disease, including chronic hepatitis B or C.
• Chronic heart disease (without high blood pressure).
• Severe chronic respiratory disease (other than asthma).
• Neurological conditions that affect respiratory function, including Down syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, tetrapllegia or hemiplegia.
• Stroke and dementia (Alzheimer’s, vascular, frontotemporal).
• Asplenia, including splenectomy or a spleen dysfunction, including sickle cell disease.
As the state increases its distribution of vaccines, Cox said, “there will be scheduling problems.”
“In every state, in every country in the world, there will be a bit of chaos for this to happen,” Cox said. “We will embrace that chaos, we will solve that chaos and we will receive gunshots within seven days of that vaccination and we will save lives.”
Once this broader eligibility opens on March 1, Dunn said, the state will rely on the honor system. “If you don’t fall into these categories … don’t look for a vaccine,” she said.
The faster the state can go through high-risk populations, the lower the risk people can get vaccinated, Dunn added.
Utah reached a “milestone” in the launch of the vaccine on Thursday, Cox said: “More doses of the vaccine have been given to humans than the number of Utahns who have tested positive for COVID-19.
A total of 362,701 doses of the vaccine have been given to Utahns since Thursday, according to the UDOH report. That is 194,393 people who received the first doses and 84,154 who received both doses.
“We’re trying to be more viral than the virus, and it’s happening,” Cox said.
Lt. Government Deidre Henderson said 29 Smith pharmacies and 18 Walmart locations will receive vaccine doses in Utah starting Feb. 11. Only Utahns over the age of 70 will be able to receive vaccines through these locations for the time being.
“The state actually has control over who is eligible” to get the vaccines through Walmart and Smith, Henderson said.
People who have appointments through their health department should keep those appointments, she said, rather than trying to get one through Smith or Walmart.
There will be more information on how Utahns can volunteer to help distribute the vaccine in the coming days, Henderson added.
The state has taken competitive offers from companies looking to distribute vaccines, Cox said at the news conference – and an offer came from Nomi Health, the health care technology company Orem contracted to run TestUtah.
Cox said Thursday that “it remains to be seen” whether the state will accept Nomi’s offer to help distribute the vaccine.
Dunn stressed the importance of the Johnson & Johnson version of the vaccine, which the Federal Food and Drug Administration could approve for emergency use immediately after this month. She said the comparisons made in the national media between the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and those made by Pfizer and Moderna were “misinformed”.
Johnson & Johnson studies have shown that the vaccine is effective in protecting 72% of Americans against COVID-19 infection and is 85% effective against severe diseases, Dunn said.
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have reported efficacy rates of over 94% – but, Dunn said, it’s a bit of a comparison between apples and oranges. Pfizer and Moderna tested their vaccines for symptomatic COVID-19 infection, while Johnson & Johnson tested their vaccine to prevent moderate to severe disease, she said.
“It’s very important that once the vaccine becomes available, when it’s our turn to get the vaccine, we all get the vaccine,” regardless of the company that produced it, Dunn said.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires a single dose, while the Pfizer and Moderna versions require two doses, weeks apart. That, Dunn said, makes the Johnson & Johnson version ideal for inoculating homeless people. Plans are underway, she said, to provide vaccines to those groups when they become available.