SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Department of Health officials said Sunday that the agency plans to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an effort to make sure it gets its “fair share” of the COVID-vaccine. 19.
The health department made the announcement in a series of “vaccine transparency” statements following a Salt Lake Tribune report Saturday that stated that Utah had received fewer doses of COVID-19 vaccine per capita than other states.
The department acknowledged that vaccines have been distributed to states based on the proportion of the adult population. Since Utah’s average age is the youngest in the country, the state was expected to receive fewer doses.
“We have no reason to believe that Utah will receive fewer doses than it should be,” the agency’s statement says in part.
“We asked the CDC to make sure Utah gets the fair share of the vaccine,” he continues. “They are unaware of the discrepancies, but have agreed to review their numbers to check their accuracy.”
Since the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine began in mid-December, most vaccine doses have ended up in the arms of medical professionals and emergency relief workers. It is also approved for long-term care center residents, school teachers, and seniors. In Utah, anyone 70 years of age or older meets the requirements for the vaccine. Some states have begun vaccinating people 65 and older.
People aged 70 and over made up only 6% of the state’s population at the time of the 2010 census; approximately 13% were individuals 60 years of age or older. More than three-quarters of the state’s population at the time was under 50 years old.
Although the Census Bureau has not finalized the 2020 census data, estimates from recent years indicate that Utah is still leaning sharply toward a young population, including ages who are not yet eligible for the vaccine, according to federal deployment guidelines. For example, it is estimated that only 16% of the state’s 3.2 million residents in 2019 were people age 65 or older.
CDC data updated Sunday evening shows that South Carolina (8,803 per 100,000) was the latest in COVID-19 vaccine distribution per capita in the U.S., followed by Nevada (9,316 per 100,000). But the data show all vaccine distributions since mid-December, including doses delivered to health workers, emergency assistants and teachers many of whom are under the age of 65-70 or older. Nor does it indicate how many were delivered specifically for long-term care centers, which is overseen by the federal government.
Neither the CDC nor the state health department provide a breakdown of vaccines administered or administered based on the groups that have received the vaccine. The health department said Sunday that it briefly provided data on where the vaccines were going in the state, but obtained that information “as we went through a data quality assurance process.” It is expected to return to the department’s COVID-19 board in the near future.
Meanwhile, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced last week that the state would provide new data on the time between the arrival and administration of vaccine doses. The state on Thursday released a new data set showing the number of vaccine doses over seven days that had not yet been used.
“No dose should be put on the shelf for more than seven days,” Cox said during a press conference. “My only focus has been on the first doses because the first doses generate second doses and every ability we have to get vaccines should focus on those first doses as soon as possible.”
The state reported that 31,398 unused vaccine doses were in excess of seven days that day. More than 80% of these went to federal pharmacy partners who have the task of administering vaccines in long-term care centers.
In its response Sunday, the Utah health department updated the figure to 26,399 unused vaccine doses. Community nursing services and local health departments, which are responsible for administering doses to people responding to emergencies and residents, had consumed all of the assigned supply, while hospitals and clinics had consumed 96%. federal pharmacy partners had consumed% of it.
The health department said Sunday that federal pharmacy partners had 28,010 total unused doses: 23,235 of these were intended for first-use doses. The department claimed that pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens “are doing an excellent job” vaccinating staff and patients at long-term care facilities, but that the federal government provided too many doses for centers. long-term care of the necessary.
“It is likely that some of these doses will be ready for the next clinics this week. However, it appears that the federal government has allocated too much vaccine to these providers,” the health department says.
“We will ensure that Walgreens and CVS receive the doses they need to meet their obligation in long-term care centers,” the department continues. “But any higher or higher dose should be transferred or diverted to other suppliers across the state who have the ability to put them to arms as quickly as possible.”
About 230,000 Utahns have already received the COVID-19 vaccine, according to an update from the state health department on Monday.
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Carter Williams