Gov. Cox: Utahns 16+ Can Begin Making Vaccine Appointments March 24
Mar 19, 2021, 5:35 AM | Updated: 5:49 am
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Gov. Spencer Cox on Thursday made a big announcement as momentum for COVID-19 vaccinations continues to build.
Starting March 24, all Utahns ages 16 and older will be eligible to begin making appointments. Those 18 and older can receive all three of the vaccines available – Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Those 16 – 17 can begin getting the Pfizer vaccine.
The new date pushes eligibility up by more than a week as the state works to get as many people vaccinate as possible before the mask mandate ends April 10.
Click here to find out where you can get vaccinated.
Cox said doses of the vaccine being delivered to Utah will drastically increase at the end of the month, and health officials are eager to get those vaccines into arms in an effort to bring life back to normal.
One of the reasons the eligibility deadline has been pushed also has to do with vaccinating those in rural communities. When teams hold immunizations clinics in more isolated counties, towns and unincorporated areas, it’s more efficient to simply vaccinate everyone than just focus on one part of the population.
The governor said Utah is sixth in the nation when it comes to people who’ve been vaccinated with at least one dose.
“We always want to keep demand above availability,” Cox said during his weekly COVID-19 update. “We’ve mentioned this many times. … We want to make sure there are no doses sitting on shelves, and there have not been to this point.”
However, Cox is asking Utahns younger than 50 not to begin scheduling appointments until March 24.
And once appointments are made, he said, they need to be kept. Appointments for second doses must be made at the same clinic where the person received the first dose, as second doses of the vaccines are ordered based which clinics have already given out the first shot.
Cox also told Utahns not to schedule multiple appointments because that could easily lead to doses of the vaccine expiring before they can be used.
Finally, the governor is asking residents to continue wearing masks throughout the process until everyone has a chance to get fully immunized.
