Seniors Receive COVID Vaccine At St. George Hospital Clinic

ST. GEORGE, Utah — Utahns age 70 and older are now eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine, and seniors headed to a clinic at St. George Regional Hospital to get their first doses Tuesday morning.

“Every appointment was filled very quickly, there’s a tremendous amount of interest,” said hospital director Patrick Caroll.

In an interview Tuesday, Caroll told KSL appointments for the vaccine opened Monday to those age 70 and above. But for now, they only have just over 1,000 doses to administer over the course of two days.

Currently, Washington County and the surrounding areas have 35,000 residents who are age 70 and older, and it will take several weeks to get through all those who want to get vaccinated.

Just last week St. George Regional Hospital was at 100% capacity and its ICU was completely full. Officials said they’ve seen some improvement this week.

“Our ICU is still at capacity, but the hospital is not at full capacity. Last week our number of COVID patients in the hospital was nearly 80, and over the weekend and into today that number has decreased, and we are in the 50s and 60s now. From a vaccination standpoint, we are off to a good start, we have a very long way to go,” said Caroll.

The hospital is working closely with the Southwest Utah Public Health Department to vaccinate as many seniors as possible, but right now, about 2,000 doses arrive each week.

The hospital plans to continue giving the vaccine Wednesday from noon to 6 p.m. More clinics will be scheduled as doses become available.