SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Department of Health officials announced Monday that the agency is turning to three major health care providers to begin expanding COVID-19 vaccines in the state, this week ahead of a jump in allotted vaccines.
Intermountain Healthcare, Nomi Health and the University of Utah Health will all help vaccinate Utahns under the agreement with the state. All three said Monday that the surgeries have already been instituted and that they are intended to expand in the coming weeks before the state’s weekly allocation of vaccines is expected to be more than double the weekly totals of previous weeks.
“These partners will increase our reach throughout the country. They will be able to offer large-scale vaccination clinics in some areas where we are currently unable to do so,” said Tom Hudachko, spokesman for the Utah Department of Health. . “They have entered into relationships with many residents in the state who have underlying medical conditions, and therefore we will rely on helping the population.”
Additional distribution of vaccines
About 10% of the state’s total population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the state health department. The partnerships announced Monday will not replace the rollout of vaccines such as those announced by local health departments or at various pharmacies across the country.
Monday’s announcement was made because the first doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine were expected to arrive in Utah this week. The Utah Department of Health expected the first and second doses of vaccines to total 122,000 this week, the new drugmaker added.
The local health departments, together, can vaccinate a little over 120,000 people a week, Hudachko said. It is currently a mixture of people receiving their first or second dose of vaccine. The weekly award is now at its maximum.
With many more doses of vaccination this month, state health leaders knew they would have to expand the vaccination services. Therefore, they sought the help of health care providers, especially since all three probably cared for the Utahns age 16 to 65 with existing health conditions that were recently eligible to receive the vaccine.
“We always planned to activate extra as soon as we exceeded the local health departments’ vaccination,” Hudachko said.
Officials from all three health care providers announced their plans for the vaccination Monday.
Intermountain Healthcare
Intermountain has announced seven locations where Utahns who are eligible to receive the vaccine can plan a vaccination appointment. They are:
- Logan Regional Hospital (500 E. 1400 North)
- McKay-Dee Hospital (4401 S. Harrison Blvd. in Ogden)
- Park City Hospital (900 Valley Valley Drive)
- Riverton Hospital (3741 W. 12600 South)
- St George Medical Center (1380 E. Medical Center Drive)
- The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital (TOSH) (5848 S. 300 East in Murray)
- Utah Valley Hospital (1034 N. 500 West in Provo)
Kristin Dascomb, medical director of employee prevention prevention for employees at Intermountain Healthcare, will present the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this week. Utah Valley Hospital will also provide the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.
“We want to spread as much as possible,” she said.
Anyone who is eligible for the vaccine can make an appointment by going to the Intermountain website. Anyone with questions is encouraged to call 887-777-7061.
Nomi Health
Nomi Health has reached an agreement with Larry H. Miller Group to hold vaccination clinics at Megaplex Theaters across parts of Utah.
Their ongoing clinics include Megaplex locations:
- Lehi, Utah County: 2935 N. Thanksgiving Road
- Vineyard, Utah County: 600 N. Mill Road
- West Valley City, Salt Lake County: 3601 S. 2400 West
- South Jordan, Salt Lake County: 3761 W. Parkway Plaza Drive
Dr June Steely, the medical director of Nomi Health, said the organization plans to attract a location in Centerville next Thursday and closer to Logan next week. Potential new locations are later possible for locations in southern Utah.
“Some of them have the observation period in the theater itself, and others are more in the foyer or in a ballroom,” she said.
Nomi Health also has the ability to hold ‘pop-up clinics’ with the ability to distribute 250 vaccines a day through the method, she said. These locations will be determined by agreements with health departments in the province.
Nomi currently has the capacity to vaccinate as many as 2,000 Utahns per day, or 12,000 per week. Steely said the organization is working to expand the number in the coming weeks.
Utahns who qualify for the COVID-19 vaccine can register to receive one from Nomi Health via a state-set website. Anyone who needs help registering online can call 801-704-5911, Steely added.
U. of Utah Health
The University of Utah Health can currently vaccinate people in two places:
- University of Utah Hospital on Salt Lake City University Campus
- Redwood Health Center at 1525 W. 2100 South in Salt Lake City
The organization plans to expand locations to health centers in Farmington, South Jordan and Sugar House next week, according to Dr. Richard Orlandi, chief medical officer at Ambulatory Health at the University of Utah.
He said the supplier was given 2,340 for this week; the number is expected to rise to 5,340 next week before accelerating in the following weeks.
“I think many of us in this partnership have extra capacity than we are currently receiving,” he added. ‘This applies to the state in general. We use everything we get as a state. ‘
Everyone who qualifies to receive the vaccine based on medical records should have received an invitation to make an appointment in their MyChart account. The healthcare provider has also tried to extend invitations via email, text messages and phone calls, Orlandi said.
One-stop shop
Government officials have said they are setting up a one-stop-shop website dedicated to all kinds of information about the vaccine, including links to where Utahns who are eligible for the vaccine can sign up to receive it.
Thirteen local health departments and nine different retail pharmacies had already been vaccinated before the three new parties were announced Monday. All partners may use systems they are familiar with, instead of having a uniform plan that everyone must accept, Hudachko said.
“There may be confusion as there is no single source, but we believe it is surpassed by the efficiency gained by allowing these systems to use their existing registration sites,” he said.
An increase in supply
The state learns every Tuesday what their awards will be; the state health department expects their allocation of primary Moderna vaccines to double as early as next week and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to “more than double” because both drug manufacturers have increased their offerings, Hudachko said.
Hudachko explained that the state’s weekly allocation of vaccines is based on its share in the adult population compared to other countries in the country. Utah’s overall younger population is the reason why the state is still low on the number of vaccines administered compared to other places in the US
For example, NPR’s COPRID-19 vaccine detection ranked Utah 49th in the country on Monday in the total vaccinated population, although it was ninth in the U.S. in terms of the percentage of vaccine used. States with higher adult populations receive more vaccine doses.
“The federal part takes a portion of the U.S. adult population and allocates the vaccine based on that,” Hudachko said. “In Utah, we have about 0.84% of the total U.S. adult population … so Utah receives about 0.84% that is available nationwide.”
Once received, the doses are similarly distributed to local health departments. Countries with more adults receive more vaccine doses. It is broken down even on a smaller scale to determine how many vaccines a provider will receive to administer.
The recent increase has little to do with the fact that the state is eligible for people with health conditions that result in higher risks for severe COVID-19 infections.
“Pfizer and Moderna are really increasing their production,” Hudachko said.
It is this sudden rise that has given rise to the need for the expansion of vaccination services earlier.