Utah Gov. Spencer Cox addressed the state’s coronavirus response, including advances in vaccine distribution, during a weekly briefing Thursday.
The state opens vaccines to people age 65 and older and those with certain chronic health conditions beginning March 1, Cox announced.
As of Thursday morning, he added, “Approximately 35% of all of us over the age of 70 or older have been vaccinated. You are about 84,000, and in just a couple of weeks, so we’re fine, again. , to vaccinate those most at risk and save lives “.
Cox said the state has achieved an “important milestone”: more doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, when the first and second doses are combined, than the number of positive tests reported in the state.
And 84,154 Utahns are fully vaccinated, as they have received both doses of the vaccine.
“We’re trying to be more viral than the virus and it’s happening,” he said.
The state plans to receive another 33,000 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine per week by the end of March, Cox said. Another 84,000 weekly AstraZeneca version of the vaccine could arrive in April, Cox said.
This volume “just changes the ball game of all of us and that’s what we’re planning,” he said. “That’s why we’re preparing.”
As the state increases the distribution of vaccination, Cox said “there will be scheduling issues.”
“There will be in every state, in every country in the world, there will be a bit of chaos for this to happen and we will accept this chaos, we will solve this chaos,” he said, “and we will get shot in the arms within seven days. of having received the vaccine and we will save lives ”.
Over the next three weeks, Cox predicts that all people over the age of 70 who want to be vaccinated. “We’re going to finish this group of people and move on to the next phase,” he said.
Cox assured Utahns that people over the age of 70 who are struggling to get a vaccination appointment “will be able to get theirs” in the coming weeks.
In the next eligibility phase, which begins on March 1, people 65 and older will be able to receive the vaccine.
So will people with certain chronic health conditions, representing about 400,000 people aged 18 and over in the state.
This list includes solid organ transplant recipients; certain cancers; immunocompromised people for blood, bone marrow or bone marrow transplants, HIV or other drugs to weaken immunity; severe kidney disease, on dialysis; people with uncontrolled diabetes; chronic liver disease; chronic heart disease; severe chronic respiratory disease, other than asthma; stroke and dementia.
Cox urged people not to call their health departments to schedule vaccines now if they fall into any of these categories, and said additional information will arrive in the coming weeks.
“This will allow us to get back to normal more quickly as we save the lives of the most vulnerable,” he said.
State epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said local and state health departments will focus the rest of February on getting vaccines in the arms of people 70 and older.
Once that broader eligibility opens on March 1, Dunn said, the state will rely on the honor system. “If you don’t fall into those categories … don’t look for a vaccine,” he said.
The faster the state can pass through high-risk populations, the faster people at lower risk can receive a vaccine, he added.
Government Lt. Deidre Henderson said 29 Smith pharmacies and 18 Walmart locations will receive vaccine doses in Utah starting Feb. 11, initially only for Utahns over the age of 70.
“The state actually has control over who is eligible” to get the vaccines through Walmart and Smith’s, Henderson said.
People who have appointments through their health department should meet those appointments, he said, instead of trying to get one through Smith or Walmart.
There will be more information on how Utahns can volunteer to help with vaccine distribution in the coming days, Henderson added.
Dunn also said national media comparisons about the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine compared to Moderna and Pfizer have been “misinformed.”
Johnson & Johnson trials have shown that the vaccine is effective in protecting 72% of Americans against COVID-19 infection and that it is 85% effective against serious diseases, he said.
“It’s very important that once the vaccine is available, when it’s our turn to get the vaccine, we make it a vaccine,” regardless of the company that produced it, he said.
Dunn said plans are being put in place to help inoculate homeless people and that vaccination of a single dose of Johnson & Johnson may be especially appropriate for that population, once available.