Nursing Homes in Utah Welcome Their First COVID-19 Vaccines with Noise and Applause

“It absolutely feels a relief,” said Wendy Moench, 69, who was the second resident of The Ridge Foothill to receive the vaccine on Tuesday. “I feel happy. It’s great, a burden off my shoulders. A sense of true relief that they had found something to help us. It feels like a great achievement for America. ”

Since the first vaccines were administered in Utah on December 15, 20,417 doses have been dispensed – 2,874 since the previous day – the Utah Department of Health reported. Phase 1 in Utah began with hospital workers in the front line.

UDOH’s daily report on Tuesday also said that another 2,736 people had contracted COVID-19 since Monday – and another 16 Utahns had died from the virus.

UDOH reported an average of seven days of 2,035 new positive test results per day – slightly higher than the weekly average on Monday and Sunday, but otherwise the lowest since early November.

Hospitalizations also rose slightly, with 506 patients admitted to Utah simultaneously. A total of 10,763 patients were hospitalized for COVID-19, which increased to 120 in one day.

Moench and co-resident Joan Postman, Tuesday at The Ridge Foothill, put the first people at the table where nurses in the now-famous wrapping of personal protective equipment – masks, face shields, rubber gloves and dangerous overalls – form a assembly line to prepare the syringes for. Other staff members worked the patients, took temperature and made sure their paperwork was in order.

Postman made her first shot, accompanied by applause and a few noises, which made the room sound like New Year’s Eve had arrived a few days too early. Then came Moench’s turn, which elicited more applause.

When they got up, commanders escorted a third resident, Betty Fife, to sit down for her vaccination. She enjoys the festive noise that accompanies it. “I like large crowds,” she told the nurse who gave her the injection.

Mandy Hampton, chief operating officer of The Ridge – which also operates a care facility in Holladay – said most of the 109 residents and 104 staff members at The Ridge Foothill are expected to receive their doses of the Moderna version of the vaccine. A few residents are awaiting approval from their doctors to make sure their current medication does not affect the effectiveness of the vaccine, Hampton said.

Residents and staff of The Ridge Cottonwood, in Holladay, began receiving the vaccine Monday afternoon, Hampton said.

“We were in ecstasy,” Needles said. “The availability of the vaccine is an open door to close this chapter … of this pandemic.”

Most residents have no doubt about taking the vaccine, Needles said. “When we put it on, they just said, ‘Give me the paper. [to sign]. I’m ready for that. ‘They were part of the polio era, so they walked the path in our community to accept the vaccine and be willing to take it. ”

Hampton, on The Ridge, agrees. “It was not a generation that was anti-vaxxers,” she said. “They know the effectiveness of what vaccines can do, and how it affects their lives.”

Both The Ridge Foothill and Woodland Park, like many long-term care facilities nationwide, experienced outbreaks in the early stages of the pandemic. According to The Ridge, a dozen residents died of COVID-19 in May; According to UDOH, the outbreak of Woodland Park in April was mostly limited to staff.

“It was very difficult,” Moench said. “We were away from our friends and family. We were away from our roommates. We could not eat in the dining rooms. We had to eat in our rooms. ”

Hampton and Needles both said it should be up to the state Department of Health to decide when long-term care facilities can begin to clear up restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19. That may not come, Hampton said, until residents get their second dose of vaccine, within about a month.

According to the UDOH’s dashboard, 102,025 doses of vaccine, both the Pfizer and Moderna versions, were sent to Utah’s hospitals and pharmacies. About 20% of the figure was applied, reports UDOH.

“Shipped” does not always mean ‘arrived’, ‘said Jenny Johnson, a UDOH spokeswoman – and due to logistical obstacles, the delay between vaccination and dosing in someone’s arm can sometimes be as long as a week. . Now that long-term care institutions are giving doses of the vaccine, the gap will have to widen within the next few days, Johnson said.

In the past week, 24.7% of all tests came back positive – a rising rate indicating that a growing number of infected people are not being tested, government officials said.

7,347 new test results were reported on Tuesday, below the weekly average of about 8,400 new tests per day.

The counties of Beaver, Millard and Sanpete had the largest number of new cases per capita, with 1 in 48, 49 and 52 inhabitants per capita testing positive for the virus over the past two weeks – meaning they considered their cases ‘active’. word.

These rates rise to 1 in 42 residents with active infections in the towns of the Sanpete Valley, and 1 in 44 residents in the Delta-Fillmore area. But that represents a steady decline in the Sanpete Valley, where less than a week ago, 1 in 34 residents had active infections – the highest percentage of any Utah community since the pandemic began.

Locally, more than 1 in 70 residents had active infections in six of the 99 small areas in Utah, which were used by government officials to study health trends. Apart from the provinces of Sanpete and Millard, these are: Eagle Mountain and the Cedar Valley; Salem City; Lehi; in Saratoga Springs.