Summit County’s ‘Pre-registration’ Efforts Open Vaccine To Residents 40+
Mar 4, 2021, 7:37 PM | Updated: Mar 5, 2021, 12:19 am
COALVILLE, Utah – Officials with the Summit County Health Department announced they were opening up coronavirus vaccinations to those age 40 and older – 10 years younger than the requirement across the rest of the state.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s announced in his weekly COVID briefing those eligible for the vaccine was moving from age 65 and older, to those as young as 50 years old.
Within about an hour of the governor’s announcement, Park City tweeted the appointments were available for those 40+.
The announcement created such a rush that the county website crashed Thursday.
Vaccine appointments are now open to pre-registered individuals age 40+ in Summit County. https://t.co/jcWzGvYrk8
— Park City Municipal (@ParkCityGovt) March 4, 2021
Summit County was able to extend the invitation to a younger age group because of the way the county pre-registered people. Months ago, around 6,300 people pre-registered for the vaccine.
Officials collected the data, so when vaccines became available, the health department had the capacity to inoculate those residents.
“We’ve worked hard to remove barriers to people being vaccinated,” said Dr. Rich Bullough, director of the Summit County Health Department in a statement. “Rather than discard the pre-registration information and start over, Summit County made the decision to allow appointment registration for all individuals in these two groups (50+ and 40+) who pre-registered before March 4.”
Dr. Bullough said Summit County already started to work with the Utah Department of Health to “more closely align with the priorities established by Gov. Cox.”
He said Summit County was committed to helping the 6,300 residents who registered before March 4.
“Once these individuals have had the opportunity to register for an appointment, future appointments will be limited to persons aged 50 and over, and those with qualifying co-existing conditions, until further expansion of vaccine priority groups,” the statement said.
