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Utahns, ages 50 and older, can begin scheduling COVID-19 vaccinations on Monday, Governor Spencer Cox said Thursday.
He also said that younger adults with certain health conditions can look for a vaccine. These new qualifying conditions are diabetes, type 1 or type 2, obesity with a BMI of 30 or higher and anyone with chronic kidney disease.
Cox made the announcement during its weekly COVID-19 briefing, which aired live on Facebook Live in the Utah Chapter.
“This is a huge addition to eligibility,” Cox said. “This means that not everyone in these areas will be able to receive an appointment immediately,” he added. People “will have to be patient, they will have to keep checking back.”
He asked the new eligible Utahns to wait until Monday to make appointments.
By April, Cox said, the state hopes to be able to open vaccinations for all Utah adults, “assuming everything goes according to plan.”
The news comes a day after Utah hospitals began receiving Johnson & Johnson vaccine shipments with a single fire that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Saturday for emergency use.
Prior to Thursday, Utahns 65 and over were eligible to receive the vaccine, along with people over the age of 18 with certain serious or chronic medical conditions, health care workers, first responders, teachers and residents, and long-term care facility staff.
Cox announced that six counties – Cache, Davis, Grand, Salt Lake, Sanpete and Wasatch – will fall into the state’s “moderate” transmission categories. It joins seven other counties that were previously in the “moderate” category.
“There are no restrictions on ‘moderate’ assemblies,” Cox said, “as long as he wears masks.”
Cox also said he wants to “reflect on the fact that we lost nearly 2,000 Utahs because of this insidious disease.”
Cox said he asked state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn a year ago how bad the pandemic could become. The worst-case scenario, Dunn told Cox, was of 20,000 Utahni who died of COVID-19; the best thing the state could hope for was 2,000 dead.
“We are very grateful and excited that we are at our best,” Cox said.
Dunn urged Utahns to accept any of the three vaccines offered to them while looking for appointments. “The best vaccine you can get is the first you can get, regardless of the manufacturer,” she said.
This story is developing and will be updated.