The next wave of vaccines against COVID-19 in Utah will begin on March 1, Governor Spencer Cox announced Thursday – with people 65 and older and people with some serious and chronic health conditions, the next to the league to receive his shots.
These groups make up about 400,000 Utahns, Cox said at the state’s weekly COVID-19 media meeting, and the state should be prepared for that influx when vaccine shipments arrive by now in April.
The federal government announced Tuesday that it would send an additional 5 percent of its current vaccine allocation to Utah, in addition to the 16 percent increase announced last week, Cox said. He said a total of about 42,000 doses this week, in addition to eight other doses the state recovered from federal partners.
Utah 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.”
The state will spend the rest of February, said Cox and state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn, who received doses to people who were already eligible for the vaccine, mostly people 70 or older.
As of Thursday morning, Cox said, about 35 percent of Utahns in that age group have been shot. “We’re about 84,000 of you, and that’s only in a couple of weeks, so we’re on track, again, to vaccinate those most at risk and save lives,” Cox 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.
Cox also implored that people in the group age 65 and older and people over the age of 18 who have the specified underlying health conditions (see list below) not call their county health departments yet. He received more information from the Utah Department of Health and local health departments in the coming weeks, he said.
Who gets the vaccine next?
Utahns 65 and older, and those over 18 with certain chronic and serious health conditions, will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on March 1. Here is a list of these health conditions that meet the requirements, according to the Utah Department of Health:
• Recipients of solid organ transplantation.
• Certain cancers.
• Immunocompromised people (with a weakened immune system) from blood, bone marrow or organ transplants; HIV; long-term use of corticosteroids or use of other medications to weaken long-term immunity.
• Severe kidney disease or dialysis, or with chronic kidney disease in stage 4 or 5.
• Uncontrolled diabetes.
• Severe obesity (body mass index over 40).
• Chronic liver disease, including chronic hepatitis B or C.
• Chronic heart disease (does not include hypertension).
• Severe chronic respiratory illness (other than asthma).
• Neurological conditions that affect respiratory function, including Down syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, quadriplegia, or hemiplegia.
• Stroke and dementia (Alzheimer’s, vascular, frontotemporal).
• Asplenia, including splenectomy or spleen dysfunction, including sickle cell disease.
As the state increases the distribution of vaccination, Cox said, “there will be scheduling issues.”
“In every state, in every country in the world, there will be a little chaos for this to happen,” Cox said. “We will embrace this chaos, fix this chaos and get shot in the arms within seven days of the vaccine and save lives.”
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, Dunn added.
Utah reached an “important milestone” in the launch of vaccines on Thursday, Cox said: More doses of vaccine have been given to people than the number of Utahns who have tested positive for COVID-19.
A total of 362,701 doses of vaccine have been administered in Utahns, as of Thursday, according to the UDOH report. There are 194,393 people who have received the first doses and 84,154 who have received the two doses.
“We’re trying to be more viral than the virus and it’s happening,” Cox said.
Government Lt. Deidre Henderson said 29 Smith pharmacies and 18 Walmart locations will receive vaccine doses in Utah starting Feb. 11. Only Utahns over the age of 70 will be able to get vaccinated for these places for now.
“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 stressed the importance of Johnson & Johnson’s version of the vaccine, which the federal Food and Drug Administration could approve for emergency use as early as this month. He said comparisons made in the national media between the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and those made by Pfizer and Moderna have been “misinformed.”
Johnson & Johnson trials have shown that the vaccine is effective in protecting 72% of Americans against COVID-19 infection and is 85% effective against serious diseases, Dunn said.
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines reported efficacy rates above 94%, but, Dunn said, it’s a bit of a comparison between apples and oranges. Pfizer and Moderna tested their vaccines to detect symptomatic COVID-19-derived infections, while Johnson & Johnson tested their vaccine to prevent moderate to severe disease, he said.
“It’s very important that once the vaccine is available, when it’s our turn to get the vaccine, we get the vaccine,” regardless of the company that produced it, Dunn said.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one dose, where the Pfizer and Moderna versions require two doses, separated by weeks. This, Dunn said, makes the Johnson & Johnson version ideal for inoculating homeless people. He said there are plans to get the vaccines to these groups when they are available.