Speaker Cox, Utah’s governor, addressed the state’s coronavirus response at a weekly news conference on Thursday, including advances in the distribution of vaccines.
The state is opening vaccinations for people 65 and older, and those with certain chronic health conditions, as of March 1, Cox announced.
As of Thursday morning, he added: “About 35% of all our elderly people aged 70 and over have been vaccinated. That’s about 84,000 of you, and it’s only in a few weeks, so we’re well on our way to those who run the greatest risk, get vaccinated too late and save lives. ”
Cox said the state has reached an “important milestone”: more COVID-19 vaccine doses – if the first and second doses are combined – were administered than the number of positive tests reported in the state.
And 84,154 Utahns were fully vaccinated, after receiving both doses of the vaccine.
“We try to be more viral than the virus and it happens,” he said.
The state plans to receive another 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.
This volume ‘just changes the ball game for all of us and that’s what we’re planning for,’ he said. “This is what we are preparing for.”
As the state increases its vaccination distribution, Cox said there will be problems with scheduling.
“There will be in every state, in every country in the world, there will be a little chaos to make it happen and we are going to embrace that chaos, we are going to solve the chaos,” he said, “and we are going inside. “Seven days after we got the vaccine, we got handguns and we’re going to save lives.”
Over the next three weeks, Cox expects all seniors 70 and older who want to be vaccinated. “We are going to finish the group of people and go to the next phase,” he said.
Cox assured Utahns that people over the age of 70 who are struggling to get a vaccine will be able to ‘get’ it in the coming weeks.
In the next phase of eligibility, which begins on March 1, people 65 and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine.
So do people with certain chronic health conditions, representing about 400,000 people in the state aged 18 and older.
The list includes recipients of solid organ transplants; certain cancers; people who have been immunocompromised by blood, marrow or bone grafts, HIV or the use of other immunosuppressive drugs; severe kidney disease during dialysis; people with uncontrolled diabetes; chronic liver disease; chronic heart disease; severe chronic respiratory disease other than asthma; stroke and dementia.
Cox urged people not to call their health departments to plan vaccinations now if they are in one of the categories, and said additional information will come within the next few weeks.
“It will enable us to return to normal faster as we save the lives of those who are most vulnerable,” he said.
The state epidemiologist, dr. Angela Dunn, said the local and state health departments will focus on getting the vaccine in the arms of people aged 70 and older for the rest of February.
Once the broader suitability opens on March 1, Dunn said, the state will rely on the honor system. “If you do not fall into the categories … do not look for a vaccine,” she said.
The faster the state can get through high-risk populations, the faster people at lower risk can get vaccinated, she added.
Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson said 29 Smith pharmacies and 18 Walmart locations would receive vaccinations in Utah from Feb. 11 – initially only for Utahs older than 70.
“The state actually has control over who is eligible” to get the vaccinations by Walmart and Smith’s, Henderson said.
People who keep appointments through their health departments should keep those appointments, rather than trying to get one through Smith’s or Walmart.
There will be more information on how Utahns can help spread the vaccine in the coming days, Henderson added.
Dunn also said that comparisons in the national media about the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine compared to Moderna and Pfizer were “misinformed.”
Johnson & Johnson trials have proven that the vaccine is effective in protecting 72% of American individuals against COVID-19 infection and that it is 85% effective against serious diseases, she said.
“It is very important that once the vaccine is available, and it is then our turn to take the vaccine, we all get the vaccine,” regardless of the company that manufactured it, she said.
Dunn said plans are in place to vaccinate homeless people, and that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is only suitable for the population as soon as it becomes available.