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Health officials announced Thursday that the age requirement to receive a vaccine against COVID-19 has dropped dramatically, but in Summit County the age is lower than elsewhere in the state – at least temporarily.
Government Spencer Cox announced Thursday morning that all Utahns 50 years and older, and others with certain medical conditions, are eligible to receive a vaccine against COVID-19 from March 8th.
“This is the largest group we have ever added,” Cox said in a newsletter. “And more and more vaccinations are coming into the state every week – so we feel comfortable doing that.”
Half an hour later, Summit County announced that it was inviting all Summit County residents 40 years and older to make an appointment to be vaccinated.
The discrepancy is due to how the country collects age data in its pre-registration system, said Rich Bullough, director of health.
The province asked residents in January to register in an online database that the country will use to notify residents when they can sign up to be vaccinated. The form did not require a birthday, but asked users to divide themselves into age categories, two of which were 40 to 54 and 55 to 64. On Wednesday, when Bullough indicated, the country would not The The age of 50 years contains the 6,300 people who were registered.
Instead of deleting the data or rejecting people aged 50 to 54, Bullough said he decided to open the facility to 40- to 49-year-olds as well.
“Late last night I made the decision, rather than vaccinating fewer people, I decided to vaccinate more people,” Bullough said in an interview Thursday.
In the future, the province will sort people who register at the province’s site into those who are 50 years and older, with the priority for the older group per state mandate.
The county has sent out email invitations to all 6,300 people who were pre-registered, 40 years or older, Bullough said, and the province estimates it will take new registrants four to six weeks to make an appointment.
Even for those who have pre-registered, it can take weeks between someone who is eligible to make an appointment and the date of the appointment.
During the briefing on Thursday morning, Cox asked Utahns to wait until Monday to make an appointment to prevent the sites and call centers that make the unprecedented vaccination attempt from being overloaded.
Within an hour of the announcement, the Summit County Health Department’s website crashed. It was only repaired early Thursday evening.
Bullough acknowledged that the province might see an influx of people 40 and older from across the state, but said he expected the grant to increase across the country within weeks.
Cox said he expects to disclose vaccine access to all adults in Utah next month, though he warned that the timeline is optimistic and that “if we accept that everything is working out according to plan.”
“We expect and hope that by April, beginning of April, we will be able to qualify for every adult in the state of Utah. That is what we are shooting for, ”he said.
Cox’s announcement comes on the heels of the state receiving its first batch of vaccines manufactured by Johnson & Johnson – 23,000 doses arrived on Wednesday, the governor said – and the announcement that healthcare partners, including Intermountain Healthcare, would have mass vaccinations erect, including a Park City Hospital.
Park City Hospital CEO Lori Weston said the hospital received 1,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Wednesday and that clinicians are not discussing the vaccine for any particular patient or use.
“Effectiveness is about the same, side effects are the same. It really only increases the amount of vaccine that comes into our country,” Weston said. ‘… There is no one brand that is better than the other. They are all effective. ”
The vaccine manufactured by Johnson and Johnson requires only one dose, and officials said it is just as effective at preventing serious illness and death as the vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer.
Weston said Thursday was the first day for the hospital’s high-throughput vaccine clinic. One of the 16 sites that Intermountain Healthcare plans to use to spread the vaccine quickly. She said the operation went smoothly and that they delivered 700 vaccines on Thursday.
She said it was crucial for people to keep a vaccine appointment if they were making one to avoid doses, and to cancel an appointment if they knew they could not do so.
“They really need to realize that an appointment is a dose,” she said. “And if you cancel or don’t show up, you leave a dose unused and it’s wasted, so we all have to scramble to find out who we can give doses to in the end.”
The hospital plans to run the clinic daily from 9pm to 5pm Tuesday to Friday, and Weston said it could vaccinate more than 1,000 people a day. Summit County’s nearby transit clinic at Utah Film Studios has doubled its capacity and Bullough said it could deliver 600 vaccines a day.
Cox also announced that Utahns could seek a vaccine across the state, but warned that they must return to the site to receive the second dose. Weston said that Intermountain Healthcare’s online portal is suitable for users to choose which website is suitable.
Officials expected a massive increase in the number of doses to Utah at the end of the month, and that the distribution network will soon expand to include partnerships with private entities such as pharmacies in Walmart and Smith.
Weston said 15 to 20 staff members had to run the hospital’s vaccine clinic, and that the hospital did not run its other health services.
But she said the morale of the hospital workers was high as the vaccine rushed.
“It’s really good, especially looking at the vaccines,” she said. “It is a sign of hope and they feel that we are going to overcome this pandemic and reach a new kind in the near future.”
To register to receive a vaccine, visit intermountainhealthcare.org, summitcountyhealth.org/vaccine or call 435-333-0050.