SALT LAKE CITY – Utah leaders said they were inundated with questions from doctors and non-medical professionals alike about how the state could help in the weeks after the COVID-19 vaccine was launched.
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson gave an answer to those questions on Thursday. She revealed the voluntary effort of the state’s “call to action”, which allows people with professional doctors to sign up to administer COVID-19 vaccines and people without expertise to help in other ways.
“We need a lot of people and we need medical professionals and others who can help and who want to help,” she said.
Anyone interested in volunteering can do so by accessing UtahResponds.org. There, they can register in the state-level volunteer register, which is used to organize volunteers. The site is open to all Utahns, regardless of whether they have medically licensed professional skills.
Once someone has registered, he or she can obtain vitrified professional accreditations and receive volunteer assignments at local health departments and future statewide immunization clinics. The site also allows people to see where volunteers are needed.
“We ask people who want to help sign up and be willing to work shifts for at least four hours,” Henderson said. “Please know that just because you sign up to volunteer, that doesn’t mean you qualify for a vaccine.”
The lieutenant governor said there was an “immediate need” for volunteers who are qualified to administer vaccines or monitor people after receiving the fire. This group includes anyone who has received a medical license from the Utah Division of Professional and Professional Licensing, the Utah Nursing Assistant Registry, and the Utah Department of Health Emergency Services and Training Office.
The list of people who may qualify for this need includes:
- physicians
- Registered nurses, licensed nurses or practicing nurses
- Graduate temporary nurses or registered temporary nurse apprentices
- Advanced paramedics or EMTs
- Certified nurses
- Podiatrists
- Pharmacists, pharmacy trainees or pharmacy technicians
- Nursing assistants or nurses
- Assistants for authorized patients or certified midwives
- Respiratory therapists
- Dentists or dental hygienists
- Optometrists
- Physiotherapists or physiotherapists
- Occupational therapists or occupational therapy assistants
Henderson said that if someone on the lists of professions is not certified in currency to administer vaccines, the state would work with them to obtain certification as soon as possible.
If you do not have medical expertise, there are still ways to help you. Henderson said the state will continue to need volunteers for traffic control, data entry and security. Details of all the roles Utah is asking for were posted Thursday on the state’s coronavirus website.
“It may take us a few weeks to use you, because we get these clinics statewide, but we can use vaccinators right away,” Henderson said. “We need you. We really need you, and this is the bright bright light at the end of the dark tunnel.”
Governor Spencer Cox previously suggested that a volunteer program be launched, especially as the state expects to receive more vaccines and vaccinate more people starting in March.
He added that “an enormous amount of planning” is needed to ensure that the growing supply of vaccines reaches the arms of every Utah adult who wants one, which is why they knew they would need all the help they need. I can get it. The state has developed a volunteer skill, and the governor said he is appreciated by all who have already reached out to ask how he could help.
“We are grateful for the incredible volunteers we have in this state,” Cox said. “We will need you. We will need many of you. We will have to coordinate this in a way that makes sense and that we can use the voluntary workforce that we have here in the state.”