Demand is rising after the vaccination of COVID-19, as about 700,000 Utahns are eligible

Monday was the ‘official’ enrollment date for Utahs 50 years and older and with certain health conditions, although some agencies started early.

The hottest ticket in Utah this week is an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccination, now that another 700,000 Utahns are eligible for their first stitch.

Monday was the first official day for Utahns 50 and older to sign up for the vaccinations, under the new admission rules announced Thursday by Governor Spencer Cox. The governor also added people 16 years and older with diabetes, chronic kidney disease and a body mass index of 30 or higher – a level considered “obese” – to the list for the vaccinations.

People rushed to fill the appointment slots while going to websites for health departments, pharmacies and health businesses.

[Read more: Here’s where eligible Utahns can get COVID-19 vaccination appointments]

“We thought we were putting out the appointments, and it was being sharpened, and that’s what we saw,” said Trevor Warner, a spokesman for the Davis County Department of Health.

Warner’s agency on Monday booked about 1,100 appointments for people 50 and older getting their first dose – and a total of 1,800 appointments daily. The department expects to release approximately 2,100 doses per day for the rest of this week, for a weekly total of between 11,000 and 13,000 vaccinations.

That should match how many doses Davis County will be given, Warner said. “By the time our clinic finishes Saturday, we should have no vaccine this week,” he said.

Salt Lake County did not wait until Monday. The Department of Health in the most populous province of Utah, within hours of planning Cox’s announcement Thursday, scheduled appointments under the new fitness rules.

The Salt Lake County Department of Health planned 6,590 appointments through its system on Friday, spokesman Nicholas Rupp said. The province uses the Vaccinate Utah website throughout the country, and by Monday, the only appointments on this site were in Blanding, San Juan County in the southeastern corner of Utah.

Salt Lake County still has more than 20,000 appointments available by April 20, Rupp said.

It was also not easy to make an appointment through pharmacies. The Harmons supermarket chain, whose pharmacies gave vaccinations at 15 locations along the Wasatch Front, said on its website: “we are fully booked for vaccinations,” and urged customers to return to the site next Monday morning.

Intermountain Healthcare has filled 90% or more of its appointments in six of its seven vaccination sites, said Lance Madigan, a spokeswoman for the hospital system. The exception, according to Madigan, was in Ogden’s McKay-Dee Hospital, which was about 80% full.

Madigan staff call people on their waiting list to fill in the remaining slots.

The appointment plan at the University of Utah Health was almost full, spokeswoman Julie Kiefer said. Their system does not have an open registration for the vaccine; Rather, U. Health seeks out the electronic medical records of its existing patients and invites eligible patients to make appointments to receive the vaccine.

U. Health on Monday opened three more vaccination sites in the system’s health centers in Farmington, South Jordan and in the Sugar House area.

The vaccines are expected to run out in South Jordan and Sugar House by Wednesday due to a “temporary reduction in vaccine stocks,” Kiefer said. The sites should set up more vaccination appointments later in March, she said.

Jenny Olsen, spokeswoman, said yesterday that Nomi Health has increased that people are planning appointments immediately after Cox’s announcement. The company operated vaccination sites at five Megaplex theaters along the Wasatch Front and opened a sixth clinic in Orem.

Correction, 17:15 March 8, 2021: In an earlier version of this article, the weekly number of vaccinations the Davis County Health Department expects to administer this week was incorrectly counted.