SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced Thursday that eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine will be extended to Utahns ages 50 and older, as well as to residents with more basic health conditions, starting from Monday.
In addition to Utahns aged 50 and over, those residents who have type 1 or 2 diabetes, a body mass index over 30 or chronic kidney disease will also be eligible for the vaccine. People in these groups – about 700,000 Utahns – can begin scheduling vaccinations Monday, Cox said.
“This is a huge addition to eligibility,” Cox said.
With the latest eligibility extension coming into effect on Monday, all Utahns over the age of 50 will be able to receive vaccines, as well as all front-line health workers, first responders, teachers and K-12 school staff, and long-term care institution residents and staff. Utahns 16 years of age and older, who have certain underlying health conditions, are also eligible for the vaccine.
Full details of vaccine eligibility are available at coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine.
The first doses of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine should be administered Thursday in Utah, Cox said. It is the third vaccine approved by the federal government to be used in the United States, along with vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna.
About 125,000 doses of vaccine have been given in the last week in Utah – the largest in a single week so far in the state, Cox said. About 75 percent of people aged 70 and over had at least one dose of the vaccine, and about 52 percent of the 65-69 age group now received at least one dose, the governor added.
Polls in Utah indicate that about 78 percent of the state’s population is willing to receive the vaccine, Cox said. It is estimated that between 60-80% of a population should be vaccinated against COVID-19 to gain immunity from the herd, health officials say.
Cox estimated Thursday that every Utah adult who wants a vaccine will be able to get one in April.
“We need to keep taking this disease seriously,” Cox said. “I will continue to focus on vaccinating our people.”
Utah Governor Spencer Cox on Thursday morning provided an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. Lt. Government Deidre Henderson and the Utah Department of Health, state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn also spoke at the event.
Watch the replay of the press conference below.
Counties that change transmission levels
After spending Monday at Utah’s highest restriction level for COVID-19, Salt Lake and Davis counties will move to moderate transmission levels on Thursday, the governor said.
Cache, Grand, Sanpete and Wasatch counties also went from high to moderate on Thursday. Some of these counties have been assessed at a high level of transmission since the state began using the transmission indicator system last fall.
Eleven counties remain at high transmission levels: Beaver, Carbon, Emery, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Uintah and Utah, according to the Utah Department of Health. Box Elder, Duchesne, Juab, Morgan, San Juan, Washington and Weber counties are also at moderate transmission levels, while Daggett, Millard, Piute, Rich and Wayne counties are at low levels.
For counties moving to a moderate level, restrictions will be eased as infection rates have continued to evolve down to the state level over the past month.
“We can start opening things up in a very big way and that’s great news for our economy,” Cox said.
For counties with a moderate level of transmission, social gatherings are no longer limited to a certain number of people, as long as all people in the assembly wear masks, although the state still recommends that gatherings be limited to 25 people or less. Masks are still required for indoor public settings and for outdoor settings when social distance is not possible.
For restaurants in counties with moderate transmission levels, a distance of 6 feet is still required between parties in the waiting areas. Masks are required for restaurant customers, unless they are actively eating or drinking. In bars, customers must wear masks if they are 6 feet from another party and must wear them if they do not eat or drink.
More information about restrictions at all three levels of the transmission index is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-health-guidance-levels.
New COVID-19 cases
The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah rose 611 on Thursday, with 12 more deaths and nearly 26,000 reported vaccinations, according to the Utah Department of Health. Seven of the deaths occurred before February 11, but were still under investigation by the state medical doctor’s office, according to the health department.
There are approximately 15,077 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah, according to the health department.
The average continuous number of seven positive days a day is now 558, the health department reported. This dropped from 723 last week, said state health department epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn.
The positive daily test rate for that period compared to the “people over people” method is now 10%, down from 12.8% last week, Dunn added. The positive seven-day average test rate calculated using the ‘test-by-test’ method is now 4.8%; was 5.7% last week.
Thursday marked the first time Utah’s test rate has been reported at 10 percent or less since Sept. 7, when it was reported at 9.7 percent, according to the Department of Health. A huge increase followed in the COVID-19 cases in Utah, which continued until the rest of 2020 before the cases started the downward trend in the new year.
There are 203 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 87 in intensive care, state data show. About 70% of all intensive care beds in Utah are now occupied, including 74% of beds in 16 state reference hospitals, state data show. About 53% of Utah’s non-ICU hospital beds are occupied.
A total of 785,523 vaccines were administered in the state, up from 741,297 on Wednesday. A total of 277,717 people have now been fully vaccinated, while 507,954 have received at least one dose. A total of 978,570 doses of the vaccine have now been delivered to Utah, according to the health department.
The state coronavirus data scoreboard has previously broken down vaccination totals between the first and second doses. However, because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a single-dose vaccine, while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses, the state dashboard now shows the number of people who received a dose of the vaccine and the number of people who was fully vaccinated.
Dunn reiterated on Thursday that all three vaccines are safe and effective, despite differences in the way they are administered.
“The best vaccine for you is the one you can get first, regardless of the manufacturer,” she said.
The new figures indicate a 0.2% increase in positive cases on Wednesday. Of the 2,230,041 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah to date, 16.7% tested positive for COVID-19. The total number of tests conducted since the beginning of the pandemic is now up to 3,867,952, up 18,363 from Wednesday. Of these, 7,286 were tests in people who had not been previously tested for COVID-19, according to the health department.
The 12 deaths reported on Thursday include:
- A man from Box Elder County, who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A man from Davis County who was over 85 years old and a resident of a long-term care institution
- A woman from Salt Lake County who was over 85 years old and was not hospitalized when she died
- A man from Salt Lake County, who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A man from Utah County, who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- Two Utah County men over the age of 85 who were not hospitalized when they died
- Two men in Utah County who were over 85 and were residents of long-term care facilities
- A man from Weber County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A Weber County woman over the age of 85 who lived in a long-term care facility
- A woman from Weber County, who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when she died
Two deaths that were reported Feb. 23 as a woman in Cache County and a man in Davis County were removed from the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Utah after a subsequent review by medical examiners, according to the health department.
Thursday’s totals give Utah 373,319 confirmed cases in total, with 14,816 total hospitalizations and 1,965 total deaths from the disease.
This story will be updated.
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