They will then be in the same pool as the other eligible residents; below explains how seniors can get vaccinated sooner.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kenley Hansen receives a vaccine against Kirsten Weber’s COVID-19 as Wednesday, January 27, 2021, Utah County residents were preparing to be vaccinated in a old store shop of Spanish Fork.
But as of next month, they will no longer be at the helm of the line.
“They will still be eligible,” Utah Department of Health spokesman Tom Hudachko said. [they] will be in the same pool as everyone else. “
This pool will include residents aged 65 and over and anyone over the age of 18 who has certain chronic or serious health conditions.
But local health departments will focus the rest of February on getting vaccines in the arms of people 70 and older, said state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn.
And Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson added that 29 Smith pharmacies and 18 Walmart locations will receive vaccine doses starting Feb. 11, giving seniors other avenues toward vaccination.
Salt Lake County sets a deadline if you want a guarantee
Seniors who sign up for the Salt Lake County appointment notice list are guaranteed to be online as more vaccines become available, health department spokesman Nicholas Rupp said, but only if they register. before February 28th.
“We will schedule your appointments before scheduling appointments for anyone 65 or older,” Rupp said.
For seniors on the notification list, “we’ll schedule them until February and, if necessary, until March,” Rupp said, “before we start scheduling people over 65 and people younger than those who present underlying health conditions “.
Listing guarantees an appointment, but does not guarantee when. Residents will be notified when they become available.
And when someone gets a first dose, their second dose is “automatically reserved,” Rupp said. “These second doses will not be affected by anyone getting a first dose, either another 70 or more than 65.”
How to get a vaccine at Smith’s Food & Drug and Walmart pharmacies
Utah seniors who already have vaccination appointments through their local or regional health department should keep them, Henderson noted.
But others may turn to certain Smith’s Food & Drug and Walmart pharmacies, which will begin providing the vaccine next week.
In stores, only those aged 70 or over will be eligible until the end of February. (Pharmacies will not vaccinate health workers and school staff who are currently eligible.)
(Those without Internet access can call 866-211-5320.)
Registration for the appointments will begin on Tuesday or Wednesday; the goal is to start the “arm shots” on Thursday.
“Just to be more confident that we don’t promise doses we don’t have on hand yet, we look forward to receiving them” before scheduling appointments, Montuoro said. And the first doses are scheduled to arrive on Monday. “The best thing people can do is check the availability of the website starting Tuesday.”
Each participating pharmacy will receive about 100 doses per week, so there will never be many people. “It’s not like a mass clinic,” Montuoro said.
People will be told to arrive on time; they will need to confirm the information they provided online; get your shot; and then sit socially distanced while following up for 15 to 30 minutes.
Smith, who has already been managing shots in Idaho, Nevada and Arizona, knows “there is a lot of passion and interest in the vaccine,” Montuoro said.
They have made people “come to the stores, hoping they can catch them in some way,” Montuoro said. “But we’re not doing tours.”
Smith will announce which of its locations in Utah will have doses available when it opens appointment scheduling and will prioritize its locations in rural counties and “underserved areas in our metropolitan areas,” Montuoro said.
Patients will not be charged for vaccines.
Walmart, which will also administer vaccines, “has not landed on a delivery date or an activation date,” spokeswoman Rebecca Thomason said. “We hope to publish a full list of stores involved in the deployment of federal vaccines and how state-designated priority groups can make an appointment in the coming weeks.”
What will change on March 1?
On March 1, when the number of Utahns eligible for a vaccine increases, no one of any age or health group will have priority over anyone.
It is the same pattern that the state followed in December, Hudachko noted. For three weeks, hospital health workers took precedence. But when eligibility was opened to all health workers, hospital workers became part of the larger pool.
Thus, as of March 1, “we cannot give priority to the eligibility group based on age. It’s a kind of arrival that is offered for the whole age group “, said Montuoro.