SALT LAKE CITY – All Utah adults will be eligible to schedule an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine starting March 24, Gov. Spencer Cox announced Thursday.
The extension of eligibility will take place earlier than expected. Cox had previously planned to open the requirements for all Utah adults on April 1st. The expansion comes after a request from local health districts for the state to open the requirements to everyone earlier than planned.
“We know we need to do better,” Cox said about vaccine distribution during a press conference Thursday. “We need more vaccine for this to happen.”
Utahns ages 16 to 18 will be able to receive the Pfizer vaccine, which is the only vaccine that has received federal approval from that age group so far, Cox added.
Cox stressed that there will not be enough doses of the vaccine before March 24 to keep up with demand. People will be eligible to make an appointment for the vaccine next week, but their appointments may still be several weeks away, he added.
The extension is being made at the request of local health departments to expand eligibility ahead of schedule, the governor said.
The state has implemented a vaccination roadmap for underserved populations, such as multicultural communities and the homeless. This process includes sending mobile vaccination units to multicultural and rural communities that otherwise do not have sufficient access to the vaccine.
When these mobile units are shipped to these areas, it is easier for vaccine managers to simply offer doses to as many people as possible, rather than worrying about their age or health status or any other factor. eligibility, Cox said. The extension to everyone next week will make things easier for these situations, so health districts and community partners asked the governor for the change, he said.
Health officials have said that 70-90% of a given population must be vaccinated for herd immunity to occur. Cox said Utah will not be able to achieve herd immunity if most of the state is vaccinated, but pockets remain in those underserved populations where only 30-40% of people have received the vaccine.
The state administered 140,000 doses of vaccine last week and 87% of Utahns aged 70 or older have received at least one dose, Cox said Thursday. A large number of people under the age of 50 who have underlying health conditions have also received a dose, he added.
Utah expects a large increase in vaccine allocation by the end of March and through April, as Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are destined to increase production of their respective vaccines, Cox said.
“We are really happy with the current situation,” the governor added.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox provided an update on the COVID-19 pandemic at a PBS Utah press conference Thursday morning. Watch the replay of the event below.
New COVID-19 cases
The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah has risen by 560 on Thursday, with five more deaths and 25,312 reported vaccinations, according to the Utah Department of Health. The health department estimates that there are now 11,281 active cases of the disease in Utah.
According to the health department, the average number of positive cases per day seven days a day is 484. The percentage of positive tests per day for this time period communicated with the “people on people” method is now 8, 4%. The seven-day daily positive test rate calculated using the “test over test” method is now 4.2%.
There are currently 189 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 63 in intensive care, according to state data. Currently, approximately 72% of all intensive care beds are occupied in Utah, including about 75% of ICU beds in the state’s 16 reference hospitals. Approximately 54% of non-ICU hospital beds are already occupied, according to state data.
A total of 1,080,039 doses of vaccine have been administered in the state, up from 1,054,727 on Wednesday. A total of 714,049 Utahns have now received at least one dose of vaccine, while 394,004 are fully vaccinated, according to state data. A total of 1,258,310 vaccine doses have now been sent to the state.
The new figures indicate a 0.1% increase in positive cases since Wednesday. Of the 2,314,764 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah so far, 16.4% have tested positive for COVID-19. The total number of tests conducted since the pandemic began is now 4,066,552, an increase of 16,975 since Wednesday. Of these, 7,526 were tests of people who had not previously been tested for COVID-19.
The five deaths reported on Thursday were:
- Two women from Salt Lake County who were between 65 and 84 years old and were hospitalized when they died
- Two women in Utah County who were over 85, one hospitalized when she died and the other not hospitalized
- A man from Wasatch County who was between 45 and 64 years old and was hospitalized when he died.
A death that was previously included in the total list of COVID-19 deaths in Utah has been removed from the list after additional investigation, health officials said.
Thursday’s total gives Utah 380,340 confirmed cases, with 15,223 hospitalizations and 2,041 deaths from disease. According to the health department, a total of 367,018 cases of COVID-19 in Utah are considered recovered.
According to Cox, Carbon and Summit counties have moved to the moderate transmission level under Utah’s transmission index system. Now Duchesne and San Juan counties have moved to the low transmission level.
Five counties remain at the high transmission level: Beaver, Emery, Garfield, Kane and Uintah. Six are low-level transmission: Daggett, Duchesne, Piute, Rich, San Juan and Wayne. The rest of the state’s counties are rated at a moderate transmission level.
This story will be updated.
