Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced on Thursday that Utahns aged 65 and older could receive their COVID-19 vaccines from “immediately”.
While vaccine distribution was previously expected for this age group on March 1, Cox said that this could happen now, as the weekly dose distribution in the state continues to increase and as demand has declined among the population aged 70 and over , more than 60% of whom received their first doses. The availability date for those with certain underlying conditions will remain on the first day of the next month, as previously announced.
“We ask for your continued patience as this will flood the phone lines and servers and more and more people will try to sign up as these slots become available,” Cox said on Thursday during a monthly news conference with PBS Utah early in the morning. Thursday. “If you can’t find an appointment right away, keep trying and you will have your turn.”
Even before the governor finished speaking, the Salt Lake County Department of Health website noted the warning that only people 70 and older could schedule an appointment and opened the record on a sliding scale in the following days.
The department said in a tweet that it would allow people over 69 to start registering at 6 pm on Thursday, those aged 68 and over at 6 pm on Friday, and so on in one-year increments until the registration was fully open to those aged 65 and over at 6pm Monday.
In Utah County, the second most populous in the state after Salt Lake, the health department said the appointment record was immediately open to people aged 65 and over.
The Utah County Department of Health has warned that available times “will run out quickly.” He suggested sending the message “UCHEALTH” to 888777 to be notified of the opening of new slots. He also provided a direct help number at 801-851-4357, operating from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm Monday through Friday.
Davis County also said it would start scheduling appointments immediately for people 65 and older.
“Davis County residents can make appointments now! (Yes, you can schedule for this afternoon!) ”, Said the department in a tweet.
Cox said he anticipates that those 65 and older and Utahns with certain underlying conditions – which together comprise some 400,000 people – could be vaccinated in mid-March, after which he said the state plans to open up the distribution to those with 55 years or older.
In addition, he said, state leaders are “working with health department experts to layer, in the rest of comorbidities, those underlying health conditions that are not as serious as this first wave, but are still serious,” he said. . “We are doing a thorough risk assessment – so we are really looking at the risk of death and hospitalization – and that is how we are making these decisions.”
Here is a list of these qualifying health conditions, according to the Utah Department of Health:
• Solid organ transplant recipients.
• Certain cancers.
• Immunocompromised people (with weakened immune systems) due to blood, bone marrow or organ transplants; HIV; long-term use of corticosteroids or long-term use of other immune-weakening drugs.
• Severe kidney disease or dialysis, or with stage 4 or 5 chronic kidney disease.
• Uncontrolled diabetes.
• Severe obesity (body mass index over 40).
• Chronic liver disease, including chronic hepatitis B or C.
• Chronic heart disease (not including hypertension).
• Severe chronic respiratory disease (except asthma).
• Neurological conditions that impair respiratory function, including Down syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, quadriplegia or hemiplegia.
• Stroke and dementia (Alzheimer’s, vascular, frontotemporal).
• Asplenia, including splenectomy or spleen dysfunction, including sickle cell anemia.
Governor Spencer Cox
With the expected number of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna increasing in the coming months, and if the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine is authorized soon, Cox said he anticipates that “every adult who wants a vaccine should be eligible for a vaccine” Sometime in April or May.
Asked whether Utah’s projections were too optimistic, Cox said he realized that the Biden government likes to “over-promise and over-deliver” the response to the coronavirus and that the state is working with hard data provided by the federal government to form schedules .
“This week, at our meeting with the Biden government, they were talking about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as if it was going to get their approval and that they were still on track for their manufacturing deadlines,” he said. “So, let’s review [our projections] how they come. This is what we did from the beginning. But we are also well ahead of the projections that were given in December and even in January. We are very confident about that. “
The vaccine’s launch could be delayed, Cox noted, if something happens in the production cycle or the delivery cycle, as it did this week when a shipment from St. George was delayed due to severe climatic conditions in the Midwest. These doses should reach the state “very quickly,” he said.
As the state has so far placed 563,608 doses of the vaccine in arms (a number that includes the first and second doses), Cox noted that the case count, the percent positive rate of the COVID-19 tests and hospitalizations are decreasing, the which is “very good news for our state”.
Along with these changes, he said six counties have gone from a high transmission rate to a moderate transmission rate. This puts eight counties at the moderate level and five counties at the low transmission level.
But Cox encouraged people not to throw caution to the wind as cases subside and to continue taking safety precautions even in the areas of the lowest transmission, as surveys show the presence of more contagious variants in the United States.
“If [state epidemiologist] Dr. [Angela] If we were here today, she would tell you and would like me to tell you that it is not a good time to slow down the things that keep us safe and protect us, that will continue to lower these rates of hospitalizations and deaths, including especially the use of mask, ”said Cox.
He also encouraged people to continue testing so that they can isolate and prevent the virus from spreading if they have it.
Grocery pharmacies that have been authorized to give COVID-19 vaccines posted on their websites on Thursday that all of the consultations available this week were completed. But they suggested that you return at 9 am on Monday to see if new appointment slots have been opened.
Here is a list of the phone numbers for the Utah Department of Health and local health departments:
(Box Elder, Cache and Rich Counties)
(Juab, Millard, Piute, Sanpete, Sevier and Wayne counties)
435-623-0696 (Juab County)
435-462-2449 or 435-835-2231
435-743-5723 or 435-864-3612 (Millard County)
435-577-2521 (County Piute)
435-836-1317 (Wayne County)
435-896-5451 (Sevier County)
(Carbon, Emery and Grand Counties)
435-637-3671 (pricing agency)
435-381-2252 (Castle Dale office)
435-259-5602 (Moab office)
(Beaver Counties, Garfield, Iron, Kane and Washington)
(Daggett, Duchesne and Uintah counties)
435-247-1177 (Vernal office)
435-722-6300 (Roosevelt office)
(Morgan and Weber counties)