SALT LAKE CITY – While Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced earlier that vaccine eligibility was expected, he remained confident that a return to normalcy would come in the summer.
Cox pointing to the mask, Cox said loudly that his days were numbered.
“I’m telling you, I’m not going to wear this (mask) on July 4. I’m going to be at a parade somewhere,” Cox told a news conference Thursday morning. “If I’m wrong, I come here and admit I’m wrong and we’ll do something different.”
Utah State Department of Health epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn has remained more pragmatic. She said that normalcy by summer is “certainly possible”, but will take an effort from all states to continue wearing masks, social distancing, limiting meetings and practicing all other public health measures that state officials take. preaches in the last year.
At a news conference in which Cox, always an enthusiastic optimist, became passionate about the current COVID-19 situation in Utah, the governor announced that residents of the state aged 16 and over who have certain comorbidities are now eligible to receive the COVID vaccine. 19, a few days earlier. than expected. That population is about 240,000 Utah, the governor said.
Previously, the eligibility date for Utahns with comorbidities was March 1, but Cox said these people are eligible immediately. The full list of comorbidities that make a person eligible for the vaccine is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine-distribution/#eligibility.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has approved the Pfizer vaccine only for people between the ages of 16 and 17, Cox said. If people in this age group wish to receive the vaccine, they should schedule an appointment at a vaccination center that offers the Pfizer vaccine, the governor added. Not all vaccine clinics have the Pfizer vaccine, and a list of clinics that have it will be provided at coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine.
Cox said he focused on getting gunshots as soon as possible, especially for those populations more vulnerable than looking at the state as a whole.
“We are committed to accelerating eligibility when possible,” Cox said.
The governor also announced on Thursday that people who want the vaccine no longer have to wait to make an appointment in their home county. If you can find an appointment available in another county, you can now make an appointment there. However, you must schedule your second dose of vaccine in the same county where you scheduled your first dose, Cox said.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox on Thursday offered an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. The state epidemiologist of the Utah Department of Health, Dr. Angela Dunn, also spoke at the press conference. Watch the replay here.
Composition of the vaccination site
At one point during the COVID-19 battle in Utah, intensive care units were likely within hours of being completely overwhelmed, Cox said. State leaders have almost reached a point where they need to set up intensive care at the Mountain America Exhibition Center in Sandy to cope with the huge number of patients suffering from the disease, he said.
But that didn’t happen. Now, instead of a triage ICU, the exhibition center is used for the administration of vaccines.
“We sell the positivity of what’s going on there,” Cox said.
About 70 percent of Utahns over the age of 70 have now been vaccinated, according to Cox. Some counties in Utah have vaccinated more than 80 percent of that population in their areas, he added.
In addition, about 29 percent of the 65-69 age group now have at least one dose, Cox said. Eligibility opened for that population last Thursday and the vaccinations of these people are expected to continue for a few weeks.
However, a Wall Street Journal analysis indicates that Utah vaccinated only 11.4% of its total population with at least one dose – the lowest in any state.
Cox said he hates how the newspaper calculated the statistics because it ignores the large population of children in Utah who are not eligible for vaccines. Census data shows that approximately 29% of Utah’s population is under the age of 18, the highest percentage in the country.
“We can’t change that formula,” Cox said. “All we can do is take the vaccines in our arms and that’s what we do.”
The disproportionate number of children in Utah also affects how many vaccines the federal government allocates to Utah, Cox said. The inclement weather last week prevented the arrival in Utah of a shipment of 36,000 Modern vaccines, which also brought the state back slightly, the governor added. But those doses have now reached the state, and Utah is preparing, he said.
Cox said he would prefer to have a high percentage of people aged 70 and over vaccinated than a smaller percentage of the total Utah population, as a majority of COVID-19 deaths were in Utah over the age of 70.
“Here Utah succeeds again in incredible ways,” Cox said. “That’s where we focus.”
Next week, the state will launch a vaccination plan for several members of traditionally served populations, such as Hispanics, Latin Americans and Pacific Islanders, who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Cox said. . The plan has already been implemented in practice, but will be released to the public next week, he said.
Health department data show that minority groups are vaccinated at a much lower rate than white Utahns. White people are vaccinated at a rate of almost 14,000 vaccinations per 100,000 people and represent over 60% of all vaccines administered in the state so far.
Hispanics and Latinos have been vaccinated at a rate of just 4,720 per 100,000 people, and the rate for Hawaiian Indians and the Pacific Islands is just under 3,600 per 100,000 people.
For about a third of the vaccines given, the race of the person receiving the dose is unknown, according to the health department’s website, so the data probably do not represent a completely accurate representation of the ethnicities being vaccinated. Even so, the state has plans to work with community partners to introduce the vaccine to those disadvantaged communities, Cox said.
State leaders will work with churches and other community partners to accomplish this and reduce the hesitation of the vaccine in these communities, Cox said. Health officials will work to spread the word that vaccines are safe and effective for people who still have reservations.
Cox said that instead of focusing on the number of people who are not vaccinated, the state has shifted to an “abundance mentality” in preparing much larger doses of vaccine that are expected to be allocated to the state in the coming weeks. months.
“In a few weeks we will have more vaccine than we know what to do with,” the governor joked. “We know what to do with him. … Starting in April and May, our biggest concern will be the hesitation of the vaccine, such as how we convince people to get this vaccine, because we have so much. And that’s really where we need to focus. “
New COVID-19 cases
On Thursday, the number of COVID-19 cases in Utah increased by 832, with 11 more deaths and 18,563 vaccinations reported, according to the Utah Department of Health. There are approximately 18,561 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah.
Four of the deaths occurred last month, but were still being investigated by the state doctor’s office, the health department said. The state also reported another 18,563 vaccinations since Thursday.
The average continuous number of seven positive days a day is now 723, according to the health department. The positive daily test rate for that period compared to the ‘people over people’ method is now 12.4%. The positive seven-day average test rate calculated using the ‘test-by-test’ method is now 5.7%.
There are 221 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 87 in intensive care, state data show. About 74% of all beds in intensive care units in Utah are occupied on Thursday, including about 77% of ICU beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. About 53 percent of non-ICU hospital beds are occupied in Utah, state data show.
A total of 660,444 vaccines were administered in the state, up from 641,881 on Wednesday. Of these, 229,526 are the second dose of vaccine, state data show.
The new figures for Thursday indicate a 0.2% increase in positive cases on Wednesday. Of the 2,189,176 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah to date, 16.9% tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests performed increased to 3,765,520 on Thursday, increasing by 21,176 compared to Wednesday. Of these, 8,582 were tested in individuals who had not been previously tested for COVID-19.
The 11 deaths reported on Thursday were:
- A woman from Davis County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when she died
- A woman in Davis County who was over 85 and living in a long-term care facility
- A man from Salt Lake County, who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A man from Salt Lake County who was between 25 and 44 years old and was not hospitalized when he died
- A woman from Tooele County who was between 45 and 64 years old and was not hospitalized when she died
- A woman from Tooele County who was over 85 years old and was hospitalized when she died
- A woman in Utah County who was over 85 years old and a resident of a long-term care facility
- A Utah County woman between the ages of 65 and 84 living in a long-term care facility
- A Utah County man over the age of 85 who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A woman from Weber County, who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when she died
- A man from Weber County, who was between 45 and 64 years old and was not hospitalized when he died
Thursday’s total in Utah offers 369,433 confirmed cases in total, with 14,597 total hospitalizations and 1,890 total deaths from the disease. A total of 348,982 cases of Utah COVID-19 are now estimated to be recovered.
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