SALT LAKE CITY – Utah has officially delivered more than 1 million doses of coronavirus vaccine, Governor Spencer Cox announced on Twitter early Saturday morning.
That number does not correspond to the Utah Department of Health’s record of 993,168 – 25,687 doses administered more than on Friday – but the discrepancy may be due to delays in reporting. Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson reported the total number of “gun shots” at 1,015,380.
A health department spokesman said the government is using internal sources that are updated more frequently than public sources, and that Sunday’s official public count will exceed 1 million doses.
Cox said the milestone is “incredible” and “shows the dedication of our public health teams and private partners”.
“Thank you to everyone who moved forward in a historic way”, he wrote. “We are just getting started.”
This morning, Utah officially crossed the 1 million vaccine dose mark distributed! This is an incredible milestone and demonstrates the dedication of our public health teams and private partners. Thank you to everyone who has made historic progress. We are just getting started.
– Spencer Cox (@SpencerJCox) March 13, 2021
Subsequently, the health department released its daily update of the coronavirus, revealing 491 new confirmed cases and four more deaths in the state.
Overall, this leads Utah to 377,983 confirmed cases and 2,021 related deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Last week, the state recorded an average of 510 more cases per day and a positive test rate of 4.1%. There are currently 144 Utahns hospitalized due to COVID-19, including 59 in intensive care.
The four deaths reported on Saturday were:
- A woman from Davis County between 65 and 84 who was a resident of a long-term care institution
- A Davis County man between 65 and 84 who was hospitalized when he died
- A Washington County woman between 65 and 84 who was hospitalized
- A man between 45 and 64 years old who was not hospitalized when he died and whose birthplace is unknown
Currently, Utahns aged 50 and over are eligible to program a coronavirus vaccine, as are Utahns with certain underlying medical conditions. A list of qualifying conditions is available here.
On April 1, Utah plans to expand the vaccine’s eligibility to all adults who want one.