Utah’s next wave of COVID-19 vaccinations begins March 1, Governor Spencer Cox announced Thursday – with people 65 and older and those with some serious and chronic health conditions next in line to get their photos.
Those groups make up about 400,000 Utahns, Cox said during the state’s weekly COVID-19 media briefing, and the state should be ready for that influx when more vaccines come out from now through April.
The federal government announced Tuesday that it would ship 5% of the current vaccination allocation to Utah – on top of the 16% increase announced last week, Cox said. That’s a total of about 42,000 doses this week, he said, plus another 8,000 doses the state got back from federal partners.
Utah plans to receive an additional 33,000 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine per week by the end of March, Cox said. Another 84,000 a week of the AstraZeneca version of the vaccine could arrive by April, Cox said.
That book “just changes the ball game for all of us and that’s what we’re up to,” he said. “That’s what we’re preparing for.”
The state will spend the rest of February, said Cox and state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn, to give doses to people who already qualify for the vaccine – mainly people 70 and older.
As of Thursday morning, Cox said, about 35% of Utahns in that age group have received their injections. “That’s about 84,000 of you, and that’s just a few weeks away, so we’re well back on track to get those most at risk vaccinated and save lives,” Cox said.
Cox assured Utahns that people over 70 who are struggling to get a vaccination appointment can get theirs in the coming weeks.
Cox also implored people in the age group 65 and older, and those over the age of 18 with the specified underlying health conditions (see the list below), not to call their regional health departments just yet. More information will come from the Utah Department of Health and local health departments in the coming weeks, he said.
Who will receive the following vaccine?
Utahns 65 and older, and those over 18 with certain serious and chronic health conditions, will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on March 1. Here’s a list of those qualifying health conditions, according to the Utah Department of Health:
• Recipients of solid organ transplants.
Certain cancers.
• People who are immunocompromised (have a weakened immune system) due to blood, bone marrow, or organ transplants; HIV; long-term use of corticosteroids or long-term use of other immune-weakening medicines.
• 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 (excluding hypertension).
• Severe chronic respiratory disease (other than asthma).
• Neurological disorders that interfere with respiratory function, including Down’s syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, quadriplegia or hemiplegia.
• Stroke and dementia (Alzheimer’s disease, vascular, frontotemporal).
Asplenia, including splenectomy or spleen dysfunction, including sickle cell disease.
As the state ramps up its vaccine distribution, Cox said, “there will be planning issues.”
“In every state, in every country in the world, there is going to be a little chaos for this to happen,” Cox said. “We’re going to embrace that chaos, we’re going to fix that chaos, and we’re going to get weapons within seven days of getting that vaccine and we’re going to save lives.”
Once that wider eligibility opens on March 1, Dunn said, the state will rely on the honor system. “If you don’t fall into those categories … don’t look for a vaccine,” she said.
The faster the state can get through high-risk populations, the sooner lower-risk people can get a vaccination, Dunn added.
Utah reached a “major milestone” in the introduction of vaccines on Thursday, Cox said: More vaccine doses have been given to humans than the number of Utahns who tested positive for COVID-19.
A total of 362,701 doses of vaccine have been given to Utahns as of Thursday, according to the UDOH report. That’s 194,393 people who received the first doses and 84,154 who received both doses.
“We’re trying to be more viral than the virus and it happens,” Cox said.
Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson said 29 Smith’s pharmacies and 18 Walmart locations will receive vaccines in Utah starting Feb. 11. Only Utahns over 70 will be able to get vaccines through those locations for now.
“The state actually has control over who is eligible” to get the vaccines through Walmart and Smith, Henderson said.
People who have appointments through their health department should stick to those appointments, she said, rather than trying to get one through Smith’s or Walmart.
There will be more information in the coming days on how Utahns can sign up to help with vaccine distribution, Henderson added.
The state has made competitive bids from companies seeking to distribute vaccines, Cox said at the press conference – and one bid came from Nomi Health, the Orem healthcare technology company contracted to run TestUtah.
Cox said on Thursday that it “remains to be seen” whether the state will accept Nomi’s bid to help with vaccine distribution.
Dunn praised the importance of Johnson & Johnson’s version of the vaccine, which the federal Food and Drug Administration could approve for emergency use this month. She said the comparisons made in the national media between the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and that of Pfizer and Moderna have been “misinformed.”
Johnson & Johnson studies have shown the vaccine to be effective in protecting 72% of American individuals from COVID-19 infection and 85% to be effective against serious illness, Dunn said.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines reported more than 94% efficacy, but, Dunn said, it’s a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison. Pfizer and Moderna tested their vaccines for symptomatic infection due to COVID-19, while Johnson & Johnson tested its vaccine to prevent moderate to severe disease, she said.
“It’s very important that once the vaccine becomes available, it’s our turn to take the vaccine, we all get the vaccine,” regardless of the company that produced it, Dunn said.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one dose, while the Pfizer and Moderna versions require two doses, weeks apart. That, Dunn said, makes the Johnson & Johnson version ideal for vaccinating people who are homeless. Plans are in the works, she said, to give vaccines to those groups when they become available.