SALT LAKE CITY – All Utah adults will be eligible to schedule a meeting for the COVID-19 vaccine beginning March 24, Governor Spencer Cox announced Thursday.
Utahns between the ages of 16 and 18 will only be eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine, which is the only vaccine that has so far received federal approval for that age group, Cox added during a news conference.
The governor stressed that there will not be enough doses of vaccine until March 24 to keep up with the demand. People will be eligible to make an appointment for the vaccine next week, but their appointments could be a few more weeks, he added.
“We know we have to do better,” Cox said. “We need more vaccine for this to happen.”
The extension of eligibility will take place earlier than the previous April 1 date and comes at the request of local health departments to extend eligibility earlier than previously planned, the governor said.
The state has implemented a vaccination roadmap for underserved populations, such as multicultural communities and the homeless. This process includes sending mobile vaccination units to multicultural and rural communities that otherwise do not have sufficient access to the vaccine.
When these mobile units are sent to those areas, it is easier for vaccine administrators to simply provide doses to as many people as possible instead of worrying about their age or health or any other eligibility factor, he said. Cox. The extension to everyone next week will make things easier for these situations, so health districts and community partners have called on the governor to make the change, he said.
Health officials say that 70-90% of a certain population must be vaccinated in order for the immunity of the herd to be affected. Cox said Utah will not be able to get herd immunity if most of the state is vaccinated, but pockets remain in those disadvantaged populations, where only 30-40% of people have received the vaccine.
The state has administered 140,000 doses of vaccine in the last week, and 87% of Utahns aged 70 and over have received at least one dose, Cox said on Thursday. A large number of people under the age of 50 who have underlying health conditions also received a dose, he added.
Utah expects a significant increase in vaccine allocation by the end of March through April, as Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are poised to step up production of those vaccines, Cox said.
“We are really pleased with the situation we are in now,” the governor added.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox offered an update on the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday morning at a PBS Utah news conference. Watch the replay of the event below.
The governor clarifies his position on the “final” pandemic bill
Cox clarified Thursday that he has not yet signed HB294, the controversial “endgame” bill of the COVID-19 pandemic, which sets an April 10 deadline for ending Utah’s masked mandate. The bill passed both bodies of the Utah state legislature earlier this month, with a majority against the veto.
Cox has until next Thursday to sign the bills that were adopted in this year’s legislative session. He previously said he did not like the “endgame” bill and would prefer that more Utahns be vaccinated before the mask warrants are lifted. Technically, the governor could still veto HB294, forcing the state legislature to meet and vote again to replace it before the bill becomes law.
However, Cox agreed not to do so in negotiations with the legislature, he revealed on Thursday. During the March legislative session, he considered that there was enough support among lawmakers to end the mask mandate immediately. He negotiated with lawmakers to postpone the lifting of the mask mandate for another month until April 10 and, as part of those negotiations, agreed not to veto the bill.
But Cox, before complaining that he answered the same question about the bill for the mask mandate 50 times, added that he has not yet signed the bill and that anything can happen by Thursday. He would not say specifically what would cause him to return to his word and veto the bill.
“That’s how negotiation works,” Cox said. “The legislation is not enough … There is always a give-and-take.”
The governor said his office will continue to encourage Utahns to wear masks voluntarily until everyone in the state is vaccinated. He stressed that the mask warrants will remain in effect after April 10 for K-12 schools in Utah and for gatherings of more than 50 people. Private companies will also be able to request masks for employers inside their units.
In the coming weeks, Utahns will have to decide what it feels comfortable to do as the end of the pandemic approaches, Cox said. People should have respect for those whose comfort levels are different from their own.
“We’ll all have to make those decisions,” Cox said.
New COVID-19 cases
The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah rose 560 on Thursday, with five more deaths and 25,312 reported vaccinations, according to the Utah Department of Health. The Department of Health estimates that there are now 11,281 active cases of the disease in Utah.
The average continuous number of seven positive days a day is now 484, according to the health department. The positive daily test rate for that period compared to the ‘people over people’ method is now 8.4%. The positive seven-day average test rate calculated using the ‘test-by-test’ method is now 4.2%.
There are currently 189 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 63 in intensive care, state data show. About 72% of all intensive care unit beds are now occupied in Utah, including approximately 75% of ICU beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. About 54 percent of non-ICU hospital beds are now occupied, according to state data.
A total of 1,080,039 vaccine doses were administered in the state, up from 1,054,727 on Wednesday. A total of 714,049 Utahns have now received at least one dose of vaccine, while 394,004 are fully vaccinated, state data show. A total of 1,258,310 doses of vaccine have now been shipped to the state.
The new figures indicate a 0.1% increase in positive cases on Wednesday. Of the 2,314,764 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah to date, 16.4% tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests conducted since the beginning of the pandemic is now at 4,066,552, up from 16,975 on Wednesday. Of these, 7,526 were tested in individuals who had not been previously tested for COVID-19.
The five deaths reported on Thursday were:
- Two women from Salt Lake County who were between 65 and 84 years old and were hospitalized when they died
- Two Utah women over the age of 85, one hospitalized when she died and the other not hospitalized
- A man from Wasatch County who was between 45 and 64 years old and was hospitalized when he died.
A death that was previously included in the total list of deaths in Utah COVID-19 has been removed from the list after further investigation, health officials said.
Thursday’s total gives Utah 380,340 confirmed cases in total, with 15,223 total hospitalizations and 2,041 total deaths from the disease. A total of 367,018 cases in Utah COVID-19 are now considered recovered, according to the health department.
Carbon and Summit counties have moved to a moderate transmission level in Utah’s transmission index system, according to Cox. Duchesne and San Juan counties have now moved to low transmission levels.
Five counties remain at the high transmission level: Beaver, Emery, Garfield, Kane and Uintah. Six are at the low transmission level: Daggett, Duchesne, Piute, Rich, San Juan and Wayne. All other counties in the state are evaluated at a moderate transmission level.
Fighting vaccine hesitation
Cox said local health departments and community partners are ready to “just go to town” and vaccinate as many people as possible when eligibility expands next week.
“It will help them significantly with the capital piece of this … they’re just as ready to go,” Cox said.
The new eligibility will not only help improve the equity of vaccine distribution to disadvantaged populations, but will also help combat vaccine hesitation among multicultural and rural communities, where convincing people to receive the vaccine has been a struggle, the governor said.
His main concern is convincing people who remain skeptical about the vaccine to receive it, Cox said. People could see COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates declining and believe they should not be vaccinated, but everyone should make an appointment as soon as they are eligible to do so, the governor added.
The state’s messages in the next few weeks will focus on showing people that if they want things back to normal in Utah, the best thing to do is get the vaccine, Cox said.
“My message to them is, ‘Do it, boys,'” he said.
