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Summit County says it has invited all who live locally and are 70 or older to schedule a vaccination

Timeline for 70-plus appointments lasts into late-March

Cassy Weeks, an RN volunteer, administers the Moderna vaccine to a patient at the Summit County drive-thru vaccine clinic at Utah Film Studios.
Park Record file photo

Summit County announced Thursday that it has sent vaccination appointment invitations to every person 70 and older who had registered with the Health Department, a population officials estimate includes around 3,500 people.

Officials requested anyone in that age group who hadn’t received an appointment-related call from the county, or an email from “vams@cdc.gov” to schedule an appointment, to call the county’s COVID hotline at 435-333-0050.

That hotline is staffed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, though it will be closed on Presidents Day.



The milestone joins with other recent optimistic news in the county’s unprecedented effort to deliver tens of thousands of vaccines to protect against COVID-19 and halt the effects of the pandemic locally.

Summit County received almost as many COVID-19 vaccine doses in the previous two weeks as it had since shipments started arriving in late December.



The 1,900 doses — 1,000 on Monday and 900 the week before — brought the county’s total to 4,100.

The county received a record 1,900 vaccines over a two-week stretch in early February. Each box pictured above holds 100 doses. County officials expect to receive about 700 doses weekly, and are anticipating that number will skyrocket at the end of March.

All doses are to be administered within seven days of receipt, per state mandate.

For some older county residents, the pace has still been too slow. Comments on social media have expressed frustration with the county’s efforts, and have included anecdotes about heading to neighboring counties for a vaccination, and tips about how to do so.

More than 3,500 people who live in Summit County have been vaccinated in other counties, according to data released by the county.

Vaccines by the numbers

3,431 – number of doses administered by the Summit County Health Department

4,100 – number of doses the county has received

2,178 – future vaccine appointments scheduled

31,000 – Summit County residents 20 and older, according to census estimates

18 – youngest age approved to use the vaccine manufactured by Moderna

5,117 – number of people who live in Summit County who have received at least the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine

2,518 – number of people who live in Summit County who have received the first dose from a source other than the Summit County Health Department

9 – number of doses that have gone to waste in Summit County

700 – approximate number of doses officials expect to receive weekly

Source: Summit County, data as of Feb. 11

Summit County has administered 576 doses to people who don’t live in Summit County, most of whom were employed locally in professions included in the first phase of the vaccine rollout.

The county has vaccine appointments scheduled into mid- to late-March, with 2,178 on the books as of Thursday. That indicates that older residents who have been recently invited to schedule an appointment will be offered one toward the end of the month, or into April.

The schedule is based on the county’s estimate that it will receive around 700 doses each week. If the county receives more doses from the state, it would add more appointments each week and accelerate the timeline.

As of Tuesday, the county had delivered 3,431 first doses of the vaccine, which is manufactured by Moderna. So far, nine doses have gone to waste, which officials said was a result of defective syringes.

“A very small portion arrive with a small crack that the eye can’t see, so we don’t find out until we fill it. At that point those faulty syringes leak,” county spokesperson Derek Siddoway wrote in an email to The Park Record. He added that the syringes are included in the vaccine shipment received from the state.

Vaccine spotlight

– Register to receive a vaccine at summitcountyhealth.org/vaccine/ or by calling 435-333-0050. The county is asking residents to register online, though officials will work with individuals who don’t have easy access to the internet or need help navigating the online process.

— County staffers will call seniors to help them navigate the online sign-up portal. They ask seniors to have their insurance information at the ready, as well as a list of their medications and a pen and paper.

– Summit County’s COVID-19 hotline, which can answer vaccine-related questions, can be reached at 435-333-0050 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

– Those eligible to receive a vaccine, including residents 70 and older, should be on the lookout for an email from vams@cdc.gov, which will include a link to schedule an appointment.

– Vaccine appointments are scheduled through mid- to late-March. New appointments will occur after that, unless the county receives more vaccine than it it is expecting.

Source: Summit County

The county is scheduling appointments for people who live in Summit County who are 70 and older. Starting March 1, the group eligible to receive a vaccine will expand to include those 65 and older, as well as individuals with specific medical conditions.

There is still no timeline for members of the public not included in high-risk groups to receive a vaccine, though officials have indicated they expect the number of doses to skyrocket at the end of March.

Gov. Spencer Cox presented an optimistic outlook at a briefing Thursday, though he tempered it with a warning it would take a logistical and organizational effort unprecedented in the state’s history.

“Coming up in March, we are anticipating a significant surge in vaccine availability coming to our state,” Cox said, citing increased vaccine production as well as the likelihood of new vaccines being approved for public use. “In fact, we believe that with the enormous increase we will be receiving in March, April and May, that it is possible, if everything goes right and as planned, and it rarely does, but if that were to happen, that we could have a vaccine available for every adult in Utah who wants one into May.”

To register to receive a vaccine, visit summitcountyhealth.org/vaccine/. Summit County’s COVID-19 hotline, which can answer vaccine-related questions, can be reached at 435-333-0050 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Correction: The “Vaccines by the numbers” fact box originally included incorrect information about the number of people who live in Summit County who have received a COVID-19 vaccine, and the number of those people who were inoculated outside of Summit County. The numbers have been corrected.

Summit County


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