State to seek volunteers to help mass vaccinations starting in March.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kenley Hansen gets a vaccine against Kirsten Weber’s COVID-19 as Utah County residents line up to get vaccinated at a former Shopko store in Spanish Fork, the Wednesday, January 27, 2021. Utah Officials Project 80 The percentage of Utahns who want a vaccine should be able to get it by the end of May.
Utah health officials said Wednesday to a legislative committee that 80% of Utahns who want the coronavirus vaccine will be able to receive a shot before the first week of June.
“According to our projections, if manufacturers are able to produce the vaccine at the level they have promised, we will reach the majority of the adult population in late May or the first week of June if they want to be vaccinated,” said Dave Gessel , executive vice president of the Utah Hospitals Association.
“So you promise the masks will come out in June and we can all open up and start acting normally again,” joked Sen. Mike Kennedy of R-Alpine.
Joking aside, Rich Saunders, executive director of the Utah Department of Health, warned that the pink projections depend entirely on the ability of manufacturers to produce vaccines as promised.
“Man, we have a desire to find out when that is, because I’ll be the first to take off that mask and celebrate a celebration,” Saunders said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 339,000 doses of the vaccine had been administered in Utah and 324,000 had been administered to date. According to projections shared with committee members, Pfizer and Moderna had pledged to deliver 100 million doses nationwide on March 31, which is estimated at 1.6 million doses that will arrive in Utah. In June, these two manufacturers would deliver another 1.4 million doses here. Both vaccines require two doses 4 weeks apart.
A third Johnson & Johnson vaccine is expected to be available for emergency use soon, and officials expect another 840,000 doses to arrive in Utah in June. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is single-dose, meaning more people will be able to protect themselves from the virus in a shorter period of time.
Reaching these vaccines to the public will require a massive effort, which includes mass vaccination sites, as well as distributing the vaccine to pharmacies and medical offices.
“We recognize that this effort will bring important hands to the deck,” said Heather Borski, deputy director of the Utah Department of Health.
On Thursday, Gov. Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson plan to call on volunteers to help with large-scale efforts.
“When we receive the volume of vaccines we expect in early March, we will need much more hands to help us shoot our arms. We will ask volunteers to help not only with vaccines, but with programming, data entry, traffic control and more, ”Henderson said.“ Utahns are exceptionally generous when it comes to volunteering, so in the coming weeks we’ll give more details on how people can get involved. ”
Health officials say the single-dose vaccine will help inoculate populations that may have difficulty accessing a second dose. This includes the homeless or those who may not leave work.
Health officials also announced that Associated Foods stores will offer the vaccine through their pharmacies, joining Smiths and Walmart as distribution centers.