Provo Hospital tries to distribute 1,900 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by Friday

Provo Hospital tries to distribute 1,900 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by Friday

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Doses of the Pfizer vaccine will not go to waste, said a spokeswoman for the Utah County Department of Health.

(Courtesy of the University of Utah Health) One vial of the Pfizer / BioNTech version of the COVID-19 vaccine.

| February 11, 2021, 23:56

| Updated: February 12, 2021, 1h11

A Provo hospital has about 1,900 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine it needs to reach people’s arms.

Provo Utah Valley Hospital officials have warned neighboring counties that if there are people aged 70 and over who can reach Provo by Friday afternoon, an injection of the Pfizer vaccine is available to them.
People can sign up for a consultation by visiting the Utah County Department of Health website: https://healthevents.utahcounty.gov/.
Lance Madigan, a spokesman for Intermountain Healthcare, said the hospital had scheduled consultation blocks for Utah county residents to get the vaccines, but many vacancies were not filled.

“We don’t know if everyone who wants it has already done it, or if it’s a technology problem – because it’s [people] More than 70 and we are asking people to register [online] before they arrive, ”Madigan said.

Aislynn Tolman-Hill, a spokesman for the Utah County Department of Health, said her agency noticed a decline in the number of visits to the vaccine last week. “In fact, we are starting to see, perhaps, that we are reaching the end of the crowd of 70s and older who are trying to vaccinate,” she said.

Utah County, Tolman-Hill said, also has its share of “hesitation with the vaccine” – people wanting to “see what happens, how it works for everyone” before getting the vaccine.

Nicholas Rupp, a spokesman for the Salt Lake County Department of Health, said his office received news of the doses available on Thursday. The Salt Lake County agency started calling people on its vaccine waiting list, asking if any of them could drive to Provo and get an injection.

Provo hospital staff, said Madigan, were working “just to prepare enough to meet demand as it arrived, so that we minimized waste to the maximum. … Let’s create a process. These will not be evicted. “

“They don’t take doses out of the freezer unless they know that the appointments have already been scheduled,” said Tolman-Hill.

The Pfizer vaccine must be kept stored at extremely low temperatures, and pharmacists generally only defrost the vials when they know the vaccine will be used.

Rupp said his agency officials had discussed transferring doses of Provo to a Salt Lake County vaccination site. They opted against the change, said Rupp, “because we are already in full capacity with whom we hire and with everything that is happening [Friday and Saturday] on our current websites. “

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