SALT LAKE CITY – Utahs 65 and older will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine next month, Gov. Spencer Cox announced Thursday.
On March 1, access to the vaccine will be extended to Utahns 65 and older. Utahns who have certain co-morbidities – but not all comorbidities – will also be eligible for the vaccine starting March 1, Cox said.
Weekly vaccine allocation in Utah could potentially quadruple in March if two other pharmaceutical companies can distribute their vaccines by then, Cox said. The state allocation this week is about 50,000, already significantly higher than about 33,000 last week, according to Cox.
He pointed out that this week marks an important milestone at the Utah virus site: The total number of vaccine doses administered exceeds the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. There have now been 362,701 injections between the first and second doses of the vaccine, compared with 351,273 total COVID-19 cases since the Utah pandemic began early last year.
“We’re trying to be more viral than the virus, and it happens,” Cox said.
Full information on the extension of eligibility is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine-distribution.
Cox stressed that Thursday is just an announcement about the extension of eligibility – those people won’t be able to make arrangements to get the vaccine yet, and they won’t be allowed to contact their local health department, he added.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, along with Lieutenant Gov. Deidre Henderson and Utah Department of Health epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn, provided an update on the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday morning at a press conference. Watch the rerun of the event below.
Vaccine suitability is increasing
Currently, all Utahns age 70 and older are eligible for the vaccine. About 84,000 people in that category have been vaccinated so far, representing about 35% of that age group, Cox said.
The governor said he expects it will take another two or three weeks to vaccinate the remaining people aged 70 and older who want the vaccine, which is about 240,000 people in total.
The federal government recently increased Utah’s weekly vaccination allocation to about 40,000, and it was increased again by about 5% this week, Cox said. In addition, the state government has recovered thousands of doses from the federal government’s pharmacy partners tasked with vaccinating staff and residents of long-term care facilities. The pharmacies had an excess of the vaccine, so the state recovered a few doses and distributed them before use.
The federal government is also shipping additional equipment with each round of the Pfizer vaccine so that vaccine administrators can get a sixth dose from each vial of the vaccine, Cox said.
All those changes meant that about 50,000 doses of the vaccine were delivered to Utah this week. Small increases in allocation are expected each week, Cox said.
“Every week, our numbers are going up significantly, and that’s the great work of our local health departments,” said Cox.
With further manufacturing promises from Pfizer and Moderna, which currently manufacture the vaccine, as well as vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, yet to be approved by federal regulators, Utah’s vaccine allocation could expand massively later this spring, Cox said.
That means Utah could potentially receive 150,000 to 200,000 doses in March or April, Cox said.
“(That) just changes the ball game for all of us,” he said.
Cox estimated that the expanded eligibility will amount to approximately 400,000 additional people who will have access to the vaccine. If Utah’s allotment is increased to 150,000 or 200,000 in the first week of March, it would take several weeks to get through that population, at which point more populations would be eligible for the vaccine, starting with the most risky and vulnerable people in the state, the governor added.
In addition, some Smith and Walmart pharmacies will start offering vaccination appointments starting Feb. 11, Lieutenant Governor Diedre Henderson said. State leaders hope that if people already have an appointment with their local health department to get a vaccine, they’ll stick with that appointment rather than get another one at a Smith’s or Walmart, Henderson said.
As the state prepares for rapid expansions in vaccine distribution, a call for volunteers is expected in the coming weeks, Henderson said. People will be needed to help administer vaccines, as well as manage traffic in vaccine centers and other tasks, she said.
There will likely be some issues with vaccine appointment scheduling as the state expands distribution, so Utahns is being asked to be patient, Cox and Henderson said.
“We’re going to do something incredible here, but it’s not going to be easy,” said Henderson. “Please keep watch, because we’ll need you.”
New COVID-19 cases
According to the Utah Department of Health, the number of COVID-19 cases in Utah rose by 1,273 Thursday, with 14 more deaths. Three of those deaths occurred before Jan. 14, but were still under investigation by the medical examiner’s office in Utah.
The health department now estimates that there are 33,948 active cases of the disease in Utah. The rolling seven-day average number of positive cases per day now stands at 1,264, according to the health department. The positive test rate per day for that period is now 16.5%.
State epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn of the health department pointed out on Thursday that the seven-day averages have fallen since last week, just as they have in recent weeks. It’s promising to see those numbers go down, she added.
“We still have work to do, but we’re going in the right direction,” said Dunn.
Utahns are encouraged to continue wearing masks and distance themselves socially, as variants of the COVID-19 virus are present in the state, she said.
There are currently 365 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Utah, including 125 in intensive care units, state data shows. About 76% of the Utah intensive care unit beds were occupied Thursday, including about 78% of the ICU beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. About 57% of non-IC hospital beds are also filled, health department data shows.
A total of 362,701 vaccines have been administered in the state, up from 345,179 Wednesday. Of those, 84,154 are second doses of the vaccine, according to data from the health department.
The new numbers indicate an increase of 0.4% in positive cases since Wednesday. Of the 2,054,230 people tested for COVID-19 so far in Utah, 17.1% have tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests conducted has increased by 13,702 since Thursday, and 9,419 of those were tests from people who had not previously been tested for COVID-19, according to the health department.
The 14 deaths reported on Thursday are:
- A Box Elder County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was hospitalized when he died
- A Box Elder County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and lived in a long-term care facility
- A Davis County man between the ages of 65 and 84 who was hospitalized when he died
- Two men from Salt Lake County, aged between 45 and 64, were hospitalized when they died
- A Salt Lake County man between the ages of 65 and 84 who was hospitalized when he died
- A Salt Lake County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was not hospitalized when he died
- A Utah County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was hospitalized when he died
- A Washington County man between the ages of 65 and 84 who was hospitalized when he died
- A Salt Lake County woman who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and lived in a long-term care facility
- A Salt Lake County woman over the age of 85 living in a long-term care facility
- A woman from Weber County who was between the ages of 45 and 64 and lived in a long-term care facility
- A Weber County woman who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and lived in a long-term care facility
- A Weber County woman over the age of 85 living in a long-term care facility
Thursday’s totals give Utah 351,273 confirmed cases, with 13,697 total hospitalizations and 1,711 total deaths from the disease. A total of 315,614 Utah COVID-19 cases are now being recovered, according to the health department.
Methodology:
The test results now include data from PCR tests and antigen tests. Positive COVID-19 test results will be reported to the health department immediately after being confirmed, but negative test results may not be reported for 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 start of the Utah outbreak, including those currently infected, those who have recovered from the disease, and those who are passed away.
Recovered cases are defined as anyone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 three or more weeks ago and has not died.
Referral hospitals are the 16 hospitals in Utah that can provide the best COVID-19 healthcare.
Deaths reported by the state usually occurred two to seven days before they were reported, the health department said. Some deaths can be even further back, especially if the person is from Utah but died in another state.
The health department reports both confirmed and probable deaths from COVID-19 according to the case definition outlined by the Council of State and territorial epidemiologists. Death rates are subject to change as the investigation of the case is completed.
For deaths reported as COVID-19 deaths, the person would not have died if they had not had COVID-19, according to the health department.
The data in this story primarily reflects the state of Utah as a whole. Visit your local health district website for more localized information.
More information about Utah’s health guidelines is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-health-guidance-levels.
Information is from the Utah Department of Health and coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts. To learn more about how the Utah Department of Health collects 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.
Jacob Klopfenstein