SALT LAKE CITY – Utahns between the ages of 65 and 69 are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, a few weeks earlier than expected.
All vaccine providers will now accept appointments of 65-year-olds and older, Utah Government Spencer Cox announced during an update of the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday morning.
Vaccinations are progressing rapidly, especially over the past week, Cox said. About 62% of Utahns, who are 70 years and older, have now had their first vaccine dose, and some counties have vaccinated higher percentages of the age group, the governor added.
This enabled the state to take into account people aged 65 and older before 1 March, which was the previous date for extension to that age group.
“We’ve made incredible progress over the past month,” Cox said.
People can go to coronavirus.utah.gov to schedule a vaccine appointment. The extension of Thursday does not apply to people with comorbidities – those persons will still be eligible from 1 March. The list of eligible vaccines is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine.
Some provinces still have more vaccine doses available than others, and it will probably take a long time to get a vaccine appointment with the extended suitability, Cox added. He appealed to the Utahns to continue to be patient while they try to vaccinate.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox spoke at a news conference with PBS Utah on Thursday morning. Watch the rerun of the event below.
New cases COVID-19
According to Utah’s Department of Health, Utah’s COVID-19 cases increased by 1,151 on Thursday, with seven more deaths.
According to the Department of Health, the current average number of positive cases of seven days per day is now at 830. The positive test rate per day for the period reported using the “people over people” method is now 13.6%. The positive test rate per day of seven days, calculated using the ‘test over test’ method, is now 6.3%.
There are currently 258 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Utah, including 105 in intensive care. About 74% of the beds in Utah’s intensive care units are full as of Thursday, including about 78% of the ICU beds in the 16 referral hospitals in the state. About 54% of the non-ICU hospital beds are now occupied, according to the health department.
A total of 563,608 vaccines were administered in the state, compared to 551,068 on Wednesday. Of these, 179,458 are second doses of the vaccine, according to state data.
The new figures point to a 0.3% increase in positive cases since Wednesday. Of the 2,144,709 people tested so far for COVID-19 in Utah, 17% tested positive for COVID-19. The total number of tests conducted increased to 3,652,448 on Thursday – an increase of 21,055 since Wednesday. Of these, 8,121 were tests of people who had not previously been tested for COVID-19.
The seven deaths reported on Thursday were:
- A woman from Cache County who was between 65 and 84 years old and a resident of a long-term care facility
- A Grand County man who was between 45 and 64 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- Three men in Salt Lake County who were between 65 and 84 years old and were hospitalized when they died
- A Utah County man over the age of 85 who was hospitalized when he died
- A Weber County woman who was between 65 and 84 and was hospitalized when she died
Thursday’s total gives Utah 364,399 total confirmed cases, with 14,343 total hospitalizations and 1,813 total deaths due to the disease.
Several provinces moved the classification on the transmission index in Utah this week. The Department of Health assesses the current COVID-19 situation every week on Wednesdays and announces any adjustments on Thursdays. The provinces are now divided as follows:
- High transmission levels: Beaver, Cache, Davis, Emery, Grand, Iron, Juab, Kane, Salt Lake, Sanpete, Sevier, Summit, Tooele, Utah, Wasatch and Washington
- Moderate transfer level: Box Elder, Carbon, Duchesne, Millard, Morgan, San Juan, Uintah and Weber
- Low transmission levels: Daggett, Garfield, Piute, Rich and Wayne
Vaccinations are increasing
The number of coronavirus cases in Utah has started to decline in recent weeks as vaccinations have increased. On Wednesday, for the first time since October, the state reported among 100 COVID-19 patients in intensive care.
The allocation of vaccines in Utah is still increasing every week and currently stands at about 45,000 doses delivered to the state each week, Cox said.
According to the governor, 563,608 doses have now been administered in Utah. That’s a rise from 551,068 Wednesday and nearly 101,000 last week, he added.
The Utah vaccination record was 24,618 doses administered on February 11th. The state still uses every vaccine dose within seven days of being sent to Utah, he said.
About 91% of the residents of long-term care institutions have now been vaccinated, the governor said. The majority of COVID-19 deaths in Utah come from the population, which is why it is encouraging to see such a large number of vaccinations among the group. Among the 62% of Utahns 70 years and older who had at least one dose of the vaccine, about 15% had a second dose, Cox said.
Cox said he still expects every Utah adult who wants a COVID-19 vaccine will be able to get it in April or May.
“We feel really good about it,” he said.
There are about 130,000 people in the age group 65-69, so at a dose of 45,000 doses per week, the group will be vaccinated in a few weeks, Cox added. The state will continue to expand vaccine admissions by age group, so the 60-64 age group is likely to be the next population, he said. However, he did not give a timeline for when the election would be extended to the next group.
Although Cox added that the state does not intend to draft vaccines for Utahns, he called on people to get them when they are eligible so the state can continue to reduce COVID-19 cases. to see.
“We all have a duty to protect each other, that’s just how it works,” Cox said.
Vaccine Deployment in Salt Lake County Differences
Although Cox has announced that all Utahns ages 65 and older are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, the implementation of Salt Lake County after that age group will differ slightly.
Salt Lake County residents 69 years and older are eligible for the vaccination from 6 p.m. Thursday, the Salt Lake County Department of Health announced. Residents of the province aged 68 and older are eligible to start an appointment from 6pm on Friday.
The remaining age groups will be eligible each day during the weekend. Eligibility for those aged 67 and over will start on Saturday at 18:00, people aged 66 and over will be eligible from Sunday at 18:00 and people aged 65 and over will be eligible from Monday at 18:00 : 00.
People still have to make appointments with the health department; boarding is currently unavailable. For more information and to schedule an appointment, go to SaltLakeHealth.org and click on “COVID Vaccine Information.”
Methods:
Test results now contain data from PCR tests and antigen tests. Positive COVID-19 test results are reported to the health department immediately after confirmation, but negative test results may not be reported 24 to 72 hours.
The total number of cases reported each day by the Utah Department of Health includes all cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak of Utah, including those currently infected, those recovering from the disease, and those who have died.
Recovered cases are defined as anyone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 three or more weeks ago and did not die.
Reference hospitals are the 16 Utah hospitals that can provide the best COVID-19 health care.
According to the Department of Health, deaths usually occurred two to seven days before they were reported. Some deaths can come back even further, especially if the person is from Utah but died in another state.
The Department of Health reports both confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths as defined by the case set forth by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. The death rates could change as case investigations are completed.
For deaths reported as COVID-19 deaths, the person would not have died if they had not had COVID-19, according to the Department of Health.
The “people over people” method for the average positive test score of seven days is calculated by dividing the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 by the total number of people tested. The “test over test” method is calculated by dividing the total number of positive tests by the total number of tests administered.
Data included in this story primarily reflects the state of Utah as a whole. Visit the website of your local health district for more localized data.
More information on Utah’s health education levels is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-health-guidance-levels.
Information comes from the Utah Department of Health and coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts. For more information on how the Utah Department of Health compiles and reports COVID-19 data, visit coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts and browse to the “Data Notes” section at the bottom of the page.