SALT LAKE CITY – Utahns aged 65 to 69 are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, several weeks ahead of schedule.
All vaccine providers will now accept nominations from people aged 65 and over, Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced during a pandemic update on COVID-19 at a news conference on Thursday morning.
Vaccines are progressing rapidly, especially in the past week, Cox said. About 62% of Utahns aged 70 and older have already received their first dose of vaccine, and some individual counties have vaccinated higher percentages of that age group, the governor added.
This allowed the state to expand eligibility for people aged 65 and over before March 1, which had been the previous date for expansion for this age group.
“We have made incredible progress in the last month,” said Cox.
People can access coronavirus.utah.gov to schedule a vaccination appointment. Thursday’s expansion does not apply to people with comorbidities – those people will still be eligible from March 1st. The list of comorbidities eligible for vaccine is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine.
Some counties still have more doses of vaccine available than others, and it will probably take a long time to get a vaccine appointment with increased eligibility, Cox added. He urged the Utahns to continue to be patient while trying to get vaccinated.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox spoke at a news conference with PBS Utah on Thursday morning. Watch the replay of the event below.
New COVID-19 cases
The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah increased by 1,151 on Thursday, with seven more deaths reported, according to the Utah Department of Health.
The average number of positive cases per day for seven days is now 830, according to the health department. The rate of positive test per day for that period of time reported with the “people over people” method is now 13.6%. The positive test rate per day, averaged over seven days calculated using the “test over test” method is now 6.3%.
There are now 258 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 105 in intensive care, state data show. About 74% of beds in the Utah intensive care unit are occupied on Thursday, including about 78% of the ICU beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. About 54% of non-ICU hospital beds are already occupied, according to the health department.
563,608 vaccines have already been administered in the state, compared to 551,068 on Wednesday. Of these, 179,458 are second doses of the vaccine, state data show.
The new figures indicate an increase of 0.3% in positive cases since Wednesday. Of the 2,144,709 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah so far, 17% tested positive for COVID-19. The total number of tests performed increased to 3,652,448 on Thursday – an increase from 21,055 since Wednesday. Of these, 8,121 were tests from people who had not taken the previous test for COVID-19.
The seven deaths reported Thursday were:
- A woman from Cache County who was between 65 and 84 years old and a resident of a long-term care institution
- A Grand County man who was between 45 and 64 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- Three men from Salt Lake County between the ages of 65 and 84 and were hospitalized when they died
- A man from Utah County who was over 85 and was hospitalized when he died
- A woman from Weber County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when she died
Thursday’s total gives Utah 364,399 confirmed cases, with 14,343 hospitalizations and 1,813 deaths from the disease.
Several counties changed their rating on the Utah transmission index this week. The health department assesses a county’s current COVID-19 status every week on Wednesdays and announces any adjustments on Thursdays. Counties are now classified as follows:
- High level of transmission: Beaver, Cache, Davis, Emery, Grand, Iron, Juab, Kane, Salt Lake, Sanpete, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Utah, Wasatch and Washington counties
- Moderate transmission level: Box Elder, Carbon, Duchesne, Millard, Morgan, San Juan, Uintah and Weber
- Low level of transmission: Daggett, Garfield, Piute, Rich and Wayne
Increasing vaccinations
Utah’s coronavirus case numbers have started to drop in recent weeks, as vaccinations have increased. On Wednesday, the state notified less than 100 COVID-19 intensive care patients for the first time since October.
Vaccine allocation in Utah continues to increase each week, and currently stands at about 45,000 doses delivered to the state each week, Cox said.
A total of 563,608 doses have already been administered in Utah, according to the governor. That represents an increase of 551,068 on Wednesday and almost 101,000 last week, he added.
Utah’s single-day vaccination record was 24,618 doses administered on February 11. The state is still using all doses of the vaccine seven days after shipping to Utah, he said.
About 91% of residents of long-term care facilities have already been vaccinated, said the governor. Most of the deaths from COVID-19 in Utah came from this population, so it is encouraging to see such a high number of vaccinations among that group, he added. Among the 62% of utahns aged 70 and over who received at least one dose of the vaccine, about 15% received a second dose, Cox said.
Cox said he still hopes that all Utah adults who want a COVID-19 vaccine will be able to get it in April or May.
“We feel very good about it,” he said.
There are about 130,000 people in the 65-69 age group, so at a rate of 45,000 doses per week, vaccination in that group will take several weeks, Cox added. The state will continue to expand the vaccine’s eligibility by age group, so that the 60 to 64 age group is likely to be the next eligible population, he said. He did not give a deadline for when eligibility would be expanded to the next group, however.
Although Cox added that the state has no plans to impose vaccines for Utahns, he urged people to get them when they are eligible so that the state can continue to see a decrease in the COVID-19 case count.
“We all have a duty to protect each other, that’s how it works,” said Cox.
The launch of the vaccine in Salt Lake County is different
Although Cox announced that all Utahns aged 65 and over are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, the distribution of Salt Lake County for that age group will be slightly different.
Salt Lake County residents age 69 and older will be eligible for the vaccine starting at 6 pm Thursday, the Salt Lake County Health Department announced. County residents aged 68 and over will be eligible to make an appointment from 6pm on Friday.
Eligibility will be gradually opened to other age groups, in the same way every day during the weekend. Eligibility for people aged 67 and over will start at 6pm on Saturday, people aged 66 and over will be eligible from 6pm on Sunday and people aged 65 and over will be eligible from 6pm on Monday.
People still need to make appointments with the health department; walk-ins are not currently available. For more information and to schedule an appointment, go to SaltLakeHealth.org and click on “COVID Vaccine Information”.
Methodology:
The test results now include data from PCR tests and antigen tests. Positive results from the COVID-19 test are reported to the health department immediately after they are confirmed, but negative test results can take 24 to 72 hours.
The total number of cases reported by the Utah Department of Health each day includes all cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the Utah outbreak, including those who are infected, those who have recovered from the disease and those who have died.
Recovered cases are defined as anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 three or more weeks ago and has not died.
Referral hospitals are Utah’s 16 hospitals capable of providing the best COVID-19 healthcare.
Deaths reported by the state typically occurred two to seven days before they were reported, according to the health department. Some deaths can be even older, especially if the person is from Utah, but died in another state.
The health department reports deaths from confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases according to the case definition outlined by the State Council and Territorial Epidemiologists. Death counts are subject to change as case investigations are completed.
For deaths reported as deaths from COVID-19, the person would not have died if they did not have COVID-19, according to the health department.
The “people over people” method for the average seven-day positive test rate is calculated by dividing the number of people positive for COVID-19 by the total number of people tested. The “test over test” method is calculated by dividing the total number of positive tests by the total number of tests administered.
The data included in this story mainly reflects the state of Utah as a whole. For more localized data, visit your local health district’s website.
More information about Utah’s health guidance levels is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-health-guidance-levels.
The information is 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 the bottom of the page.