SALT LAKE CITY – Utahns 65 and older will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine next month, Gov. Spencer Cox announced Thursday.
On March 1, eligibility for the vaccine will be extended to Utahns age 65 or older. Utahns who have certain comorbidities, but not all, will also be eligible for the vaccine starting March 1, Cox said.
The weekly vaccine allocation in Utah could quadruple in March if two other pharmaceutical companies could distribute their vaccines at that time, Cox said. The state allocation is about 50,000 this week, already rising significantly from about 33,000 last week, according to Cox.
He noted that this week marks an important milestone at the Utah virus site: the total number of vaccine doses administered has exceeded the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. There have now been 362,701 shots between the first and second doses of the vaccine, compared to a total of 351,273 COVID-19 cases since the Utah pandemic began early last year.
“We’re trying to be more viral than the virus, and it’s happening,” Cox said.
All information on expanding eligibility is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine-distribution.
Cox stressed that Thursday is just an announcement about the extension of eligibility: these people will still not be able to make appointments to get the vaccine and should not contact their local health department, he added.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, along with Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, and Utah State Department of Health epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn offered an update on the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday morning. . Watch the replay of the event below.
Extension of eligibility for the vaccine
Currently, all Utahns 70 years of age or older are eligible to receive the vaccine. About 84,000 people in this category have been vaccinated so far, representing about 35 percent of that age group, Cox said.
The governor said he hopes it will take two or three more weeks to vaccinate the rest of the people aged 70 or over who want the vaccine, bringing the total to about 240,000 people.
Recently, the federal government increased Utah’s weekly vaccine allocation to about 40,000 and increased again by about 5% this week, Cox said. In addition, the state government recovered thousands of doses from federal government pharmaceutical partners, who have been tasked with vaccinating staff and residents in long-term care centers. Pharmacies had an excess of vaccine, so the state recovered some doses and redistributed them for use.
The federal government also sends additional equipment with each round of the Pfizer vaccine, so vaccine administrators can extract a sixth dose from each vial of the vaccine, Cox said.
All of these changes meant that approximately 50,000 doses of the vaccine were delivered to Utah this week. A small increase in allocation is expected each week, Cox said.
“Every week our numbers increase significantly, and that’s the big job of our local health departments,” Cox said.
With more production promises from Pfizer and Moderna, which currently manufacture the vaccine, as well as Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines, which have not yet been approved by federal regulators, vaccine allocation in Utah could expand massively by the end this spring, Cox said.
That means Utah could receive 150,000 to 200,000 doses in March or April, Cox said.
“(That) just changes the ball game for all of us,” he said.
Cox estimated that the expanded eligibility will amount to about 400,000 additional people who have access to the vaccine. If Utah’s allocation increases to 150,000 or 200,000 in the first week of March, it would take a few weeks for that population to pass, at which point vaccine eligibility would open up to more populations, starting with the most vulnerable people. risk and vulnerable. in the state, the governor added.
In addition, some Smith and Walmart pharmacies will begin offering vaccination appointments starting Feb. 11, according to Lt. Gov. Diedre Henderson. State leaders hope that if people already have an appointment with their local health department to get a vaccine, they will keep that appointment instead of making a new one at Smith or Walmart, Henderson said.
As the state prepares for a rapid expansion in vaccine distribution, a call for volunteers is expected in the coming weeks, Henderson said. He needed people to help with vaccine administration as well as traffic management at vaccination centers and other tasks, he said.
There will likely be some difficulty scheduling vaccine appointments as the state expands distribution, so Utahns is being asked to be patient, Cox and Henderson said.
“We’re going to do something amazing here, but it’s not going to be easy,” Henderson said. “Please watch out because we will need you.”
New COVID-19 cases
The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah rose 1,273 on Thursday, with 14 more deaths reported, according to the Utah Department of Health. Three of those deaths occurred before Jan. 14, but were still being investigated by the Utah state medical office.
Now the health department estimates there are 33,948 active cases of the disease in Utah. According to the health department, the average continued number of positive cases per seven-day day is 1,264. The positive daily test rate for this time period is now 16.5%.
State Department of Health epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said Thursday that seven-day averages have dropped since last week, as have recent weeks. It was promising to see those numbers dwindle, he added.
“We still have work ahead of us, but we’re going in the right direction,” Dunn said.
Utahns are encouraged to continue wearing masks and socially distancing themselves, as there are variants of the COVID-19 virus in the state, he said.
There are currently 365 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Utah, including 125 in intensive care, according to state data. Approximately 76% of Utah’s intensive care beds are occupied on Thursday, including approximately 78% of the ICU beds at the state’s 16 reference hospitals. Approximately 57% of non-ICU hospital beds are also filled, according to data from the health department.
A total of 362,701 vaccines have been administered in the state, up from 345,179 on Wednesday. Of these, 84,154 are second doses of the vaccine, according to data from the health department.
The new figures indicate an increase of 0.4% in positive cases since Wednesday. Of the 2,054,230 people tested so far to detect COVID-19 in Utah, 17.1% tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests performed increased by 13,702 as of Thursday and 9,419 of these were tests from people who had not been tested for COVID-19, according to the health department.
The 14 deaths reported on Thursday are:
- A Box Elder County man who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A Box Elder County man who was between 65 and 84 years old and resided in a long-term care center
- A Davis County man who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- Two men from Salt Lake County who were between the ages of 45 and 64 and were hospitalized when they died
- 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 65 and 84 years old and was not hospitalized when he died
- A Utah County man who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A Washington County man who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A Salt Lake County woman who was between 65 and 84 years old and resided in a long-term care center
- A Salt Lake County woman who was over 85 years old and resided in a long-term care center
- A Weber County woman who was between 45 and 64 years old and resided in a long-term care center
- A Weber County woman who was between 65 and 84 years old and resided in a long-term care center
- A Weber County woman who was over 85 years old and resided in a long-term care center
Thursday’s totals give Utah 351,273 confirmed cases in total, with 13,697 total hospitalizations and 1,711 deaths from the disease. According to the Department of Health, a total of 315,614 cases of COVID-19 will be recovered in Utah.
Methodology:
Test results now include PCR test data and antigen testing. Positive COVID-19 test results are reported to the health department immediately after confirmation, but negative results may not be reported within 24 to 72 hours.
The total number of cases reported daily by the Utah Department of Health includes all cases of COVID-19 since the Utah outbreak began, including those that are currently infected, those that have recovered from the disease, and those who have died.
Recovered cases are defined as anyone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 three or more weeks ago and who has not died.
The reference hospitals are the 16 hospitals in Utah with the capacity to provide the best COVID-19 health care.
According to the health department, deaths reported by the state usually occur two to seven days before their complaint. Some deaths may be even further back, especially if the person is from Utah but has died in another state.
The health department reports both confirmed deaths and probable cases of COVID-19 as defined in the case reviewed by the Council of State and territorial epidemiologists. Death counts may change as case investigations are completed.
According to the health department, for deaths reported as deaths from COVID-19, the person would not have died if they did not have COVID-19.
The data included in this story primarily reflects the state of Utah as a whole. For more localized data, visit your local health district website.
You can learn more about Utah health guidance levels at coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-health-guidance-levels.
The information comes from the Utah Department of Health and coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts. For more information on how the Utah Department of Health compiles and reports COVID-19 data, visit coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts and scroll down to the “Data Notes” section at bottom of the page.
Jacob Klopfenstein