SALT LAKE CITY – All Utah adults are eligible to start an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine from March 24, Government Spencer Cox announced Thursday.
Utahns between the ages of 16 and 18 are only eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine, which is the only vaccine so far to have received federal approval for that age group, Cox added during a news conference.
The governor stressed that by March 24, there will not be enough doses of the vaccine to keep up with demand. People will be eligible to make an appointment for the vaccine next week, but it could take a few more weeks, he added.
“We know we have to do better,” Cox said. “We need more vaccination to make that happen.”
The expansion of fitness will take place faster than the previously expected date of April 1, and it comes at the request of local health departments to broaden the admission sooner than previously planned, the governor said.
The state has implemented a vaccination roadmap for underprivileged populations, such as multicultural communities and homeless individuals. The process includes sending mobile vaccination units to multicultural and rural communities that would otherwise not have sufficient access to the vaccine.
When the mobile units are shipped to those areas, it is easier for vaccine administrators to offer doses to as many people as possible instead of worrying about their age or health status or another fitness factor, Cox said. The expansion to everyone next week will make things easier for such situations, which is why health districts and community partners have called on the governor to make the change, he said.
Health officials said 70-90% of a given population needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. Cox said Utah will not be able to achieve herd immunity if the majority of the state is vaccinated, but the bags remain in the underprivileged population where only 30-40% of the people have received the vaccine.
The state administered 140,000 doses of vaccines last week, and 87% of Utahns aged 70 and older received at least one dose, Cox said Thursday. A large number of people under the age of 50 who have underlying health conditions have also received a dose, he added.
Utx expects a large increase in vaccine allocation by the end of March and through April, as Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson will all increase production of their respective vaccines, Cox said.
“We are really happy with where things are at the moment,” the governor added.
Gov. Spencer Cox, Utah, provided an update on the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday morning. Watch the rerun of the event below.
Governor explains position on endgame bill
Cox made it clear Thursday that he has not yet signed HB294, the controversial COVID-19 pandemic bill, which sets a deadline of April 10 for the end of Utah’s entire mask mandate. The bill was passed by both bodies of the Utah legislature with a veto majority earlier this month.
Cox has until next Thursday to sign bills approved in this year’s legislative session. He said earlier that he did not like the ‘endgame’ bill and preferred that more Utahns be vaccinated before the mask mandates were lifted. Technically, Governor HB294 could still veto, forcing the legislature to reconvene and vote again to replace him before the bill becomes law.
However, Cox agreed not to do so in negotiations with the legislature, he revealed Thursday. During the legislative session in March, he felt that there was enough support among legislators to end the mask mandate immediately. He negotiated with lawmakers to postpone the removal of the mask mandate until April 10, and as part of the negotiations, he agreed not to veto the bill.
But Cox, before complaining that he had answered the same question about the mask mandate bill 50 times, added that he had not yet signed the bill, and that anything could happen until next Thursday. However, he would not specifically say what would make him go back and veto the bill.
“This is how the negotiation works,” Cox said. “Legislation is not beautiful … There is always give-and-take.”
The governor said his office would encourage Utahns to wear masks voluntarily until everyone in the state is vaccinated. He pointed out that mask mandates remain in effect after April 10 for K-12 schools in Utah and for gatherings of more than 50 people. Private enterprises will also be able to require masks for customers in their institutions.
In the coming weeks, Utahns will have to decide what they are comfortable doing as the end of the pandemic approaches, Cox said. People should have respect for those whose comfort does not differ from their own.
“We’ll all have to make those decisions,” Cox said.
New cases COVID-19
According to the Utah Department of Health, Utah’s COVID-19 cases increased by 560 on Thursday, with five more deaths and 25,312 vaccinations. The Department of Health estimates that there are now 11,281 active cases of the disease in Utah.
According to the health department, the average number of positive cases of seven days per day is now at 484. The positive test rate per day for the period reported using the “people over people” method is now 8.4%. The positive test rate per day of seven days, calculated using the ‘test over test’ method, is now 4.2%.
There are currently 189 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Utah, including 63 in intensive care, state data show. About 72% of all beds for intensive care units are now occupied in Utah, including 75% of ICU beds in the 16 referral hospitals in the state. About 54% of non-ICU hospital beds are now occupied, according to state data.
A total of 1,080,039 doses of vaccine were administered in the state, compared to 1,054,727 on Wednesday. A total of 714,049 Utahns have now received at least one vaccine dose, while 394,004 have been fully vaccinated, state data show. A total of 1,258,310 doses of vaccine have now been sent to the state.
The new numbers point to a 0.1% increase in positive cases since Wednesday. Of the 2,314,764 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah so far, 16.4% tested positive for the disease. The number of tests started since the pandemic is now 4,066,552, which has risen 16,975 since Wednesday. Of these, 7,526 were tests of humans not previously tested for COVID-19.
The five deaths reported on Thursday were:
- Two women in Salt Lake County who were between 65 and 84 and were hospitalized when they died
- Two women in Utah County who were over 85, one was admitted when she died and the other was not in the hospital
- A Wasatch County man who was between 45 and 64 years old and was admitted to the hospital when he died.
One health official said one deaths previously included in the total Utah death toll COVID-19 was removed from the list.
Thursday totals give Utah 380,340 total confirmed cases, with 15,223 total hospitalizations and 2,041 total deaths due to the disease. A total of 367,018 Utah COVID-19 cases are now considered recovery, according to the Department of Health.
According to Cox, the provinces of Carbon and Summit have moved to the moderate transmission level below Utah’s transmission index system. The provinces of Duchesne and San Juan have now moved to the low transfer level.
Five counties remain at the high transfer level: Beaver, Emery, Garfield, Kane and Uintah. Six are at the low transfer level: Daggett, Duchesne, Piute, Rich, San Juan and Wayne. All other provinces in the state are judged on the moderate transfer level.
Combating vaccine hesitation
Cox said local health departments and community partners are ready to “just go to town” and vaccinate as many people as possible if eligible again next week.
“It will help them significantly with the capital of this … they are getting ready,” Cox said.
The new suitability not only helps to improve the distribution of vaccines in underprivileged populations, but will also help combat vaccine hesitation among multicultural and rural communities.
His biggest concern is convincing people who are skeptical about the vaccine to get it, Cox said. People are seeing COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates drop and think they do not need to be vaccinated, but everyone still needs to make an appointment as soon as they are eligible, the governor added.
The state’s messages over the next few weeks will focus on showing people that, if they want things to return to normal in Utah, they need to get the vaccine, Cox said.
“My message to them is, ‘Just do it, guys,'” he said.
