SALT LAKE CITY – As Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced more vaccine eligibility earlier than expected on Thursday, he remained confident optimistic that summer would return to normal.
Gesturing with the mask, Cox firmly stated that his days are numbered.
“I’m telling you, I’m not going to put on this (mask) on July 4. I’ll be at a parade somewhere,” Cox told a news conference Thursday morning. “If I’m wrong, I’ll come here and admit I’m wrong and we’ll do something different.”
Utah Department of Health state epidemiologist Angela Dunn continued to be more pragmatic. He said normalcy for the summer is “certainly possible,” but it will take an effort by everyone in the state to continue wearing masks, distance themselves socially, limit rallies, and practice all other public health measures that they have been preaching state officials for the past year.
At the press conference where Cox, always an optimistic enthusiast, became passionate about the current situation of COVID-19 in Utah, the governor announced that residents of the state aged 16 and over who have certain comorbidities can already receive the COVID-19 vaccine, several days before. than expected. That population represents about 240,000 Utahns, the governor said.
Previously, the eligibility date for Utahns with comorbidities was March 1, but Cox said those people could be effective immediately. The full list of comorbidities that make a person fit for the vaccine is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine-distribution/#eligibility.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has only approved the Pfizer vaccine for 16- and 17-year-olds, Cox said. If people in that age group want to get the vaccine, they have to 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 firing guns as quickly as possible, especially for those most vulnerable populations rather than looking at the state’s general population.
“We are committed to accelerating eligibility when possible,” Cox said.
The governor also announced Thursday that people who want the vaccine no longer need 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. However, you have to make an appointment for the second dose of vaccine in the same county where you made your appointment for the first dose, Cox said.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox provided an update on the COVID-19 pandemic at a news conference Thursday. Dr. Angela Dunn, a state epidemiologist with the Utah Department of Health, also spoke at the press conference. Watch the playback here.
Constitution of the vaccination field
At one point in the fight against COVID-19 in Utah, intensive care units were perhaps on the verge of being completely overwhelmed, Cox said. State leaders almost got to a point where they had to set up a triage ICU at Sandy’s Mountain America Expo Center to handle the large number of patients suffering from the disease, he said.
But that didn’t happen. Now, instead of a triage ICU, the expo center is used to administer vaccines.
“We’re selling the positivity of what’s going on,” Cox said.
According to Cox, approximately 70% of Utahns aged 70 or older have been vaccinated. Some Utah counties have vaccinated more than 80 percent of that population in their areas, he added.
In addition, approximately 29 percent of the 65-69 age group now have at least one dose, Cox said. Eligibility for this population was opened last Thursday and vaccinations of those people are expected to continue for several weeks.
However, a Wall Street Journal analysis indicates that Utah has vaccinated only 11.4% of its global population with at least one dose, the lowest in any state.
Cox said he hates the way the newspaper calculated this statistic because it doesn’t take into account the large population of Utah children who are not eligible for the vaccine. Census data show that approximately 29% of Utah’s population is under the age of 18, the largest percentage in the country.
“We can’t change that formula,” Cox said. “All we can do is get the vaccines in arms that reach us, and that’s what we’re doing.”
The disproportionate number of children in Utah also affects the amount of vaccines the federal government allocates to Utah, Cox said. The inclined weather last week prevented a shipment of 36,000 Modern vaccines from reaching Utah, which pushed the state back slightly, the governor added. But those doses have now reached the state and Utah is preparing the ground, he said.
Cox said he would rather have a large percentage of people age 70 or older vaccinated than a smaller percentage of the Utah general population, because most deaths from COVID-19 have been over 70 years.
“This is where Utah is once again succeeding in incredible ways,” Cox said. “This is where our focus is.”
Next week, the state will launch a plan to vaccinate more members of traditionally underserved populations, such as Hispanics and Latinos 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 unveiled to the public next week, he said.
Health department data show that minority groups are vaccinating at a much slower rate than white Utahns. White people are being vaccinated at a rate of about 14,000 vaccines per 100,000 people and account for more than 60% of the total 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 and Pacific Islanders is just under 3,600 per 100,000 people.
According to the health department’s website, for about a third of the vaccines administered, the race of the person receiving the dose is unknown, so the data may not be a completely accurate representation of the ethnic groups being vaccinated . Still, the state plans to work with community partners to get the vaccine in those underserved communities, Cox said.
State leaders will work with churches and other community partners to achieve this and to reduce vacancy in those 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 a “mindset of abundance” in preparation for the much larger amounts of vaccine doses expected. to be assigned to the state in the coming weeks and months.
“In a few weeks we will have more vaccine than we know what to do with,” the governor quipped. “We know what to do with it. … From April and May, our biggest concern will be hesitation, like how to convince people to get this vaccine, because we have a lot of it. And that’s really where it should ‘be our approach “.
New COVID-19 cases
On Thursday, the number of COVID-19 cases in Utah increased by 832, with 11 more deaths and 18,563 more vaccines, according to the Utah Department of Health. There are an estimated 18,561 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah.
Four of the deaths occurred last month, but were still being investigated by the state medical office, the health department said. The state also reported 18,563 more vaccines as of Thursday.
According to the health department, the average number of positive cases per day for seven days is 723. The percentage of positive tests per day for the time period communicated with the “people on people” method is now 12.4%. The positive test rate per seven-day day calculated using the “test over test” method is now 5.7%.
There are currently 221 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Utah, including 87 in intensive care, according to state data. About 74% of all intensive care beds in Utah are occupied on Thursday, including approximately 77% of the ICU beds at the state’s 16 reference hospitals. About 53 percent of non-ICU hospital beds are occupied in Utah, according to state data.
A total of 660,444 vaccines have been administered in the state, up from 641,881 on Wednesday. Of these, 229,526 are second doses of the vaccine, according to state data.
New figures for Thursday indicate a 0.2% increase in positive cases since Wednesday. Of the 2,189,176 people tested so far to detect COVID-19 in Utah, 16.9% tested positive for the disease. The number of tests performed increased to 3,765,520 on Thursday, an increase of 21,176 compared to Wednesday. Of these, 8,582 were tests of people who had not been 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 from Davis County who was over 85 years old and resided in a long-term care center
- A Salt Lake County man who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A Salt Lake County man 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 who was not hospitalized when she died
- A woman from Tooele County who was over 85 and who was hospitalized when she died
- A Utah County woman who was over 85 years old and resided in a long-term care center
- A Utah County woman who was between 65 and 84 years old and resided in a long-term care center
- A Utah County man who was over 85 years old and resided in 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 Weber County man who was between 45 and 64 years old and was not hospitalized when he died
Thursday’s total gives Utah 369,433 confirmed cases, with 14,597 hospitalizations and 1,890 deaths from disease. A total of 348,982 cases of COVID-19 will be recovered in Utah.
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