Utah Will Start Vaccinating People Over Age 65, and With Some Health Conditions, on March 1

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced that the state will start the next round of COVID-19 vaccinations on March 1, prioritizing people 65 and older and those with certain severe and chronic health conditions, reports the Salt Lake Tribune . He said those groups comprise roughly 400,000 Utahns, and the state should be ready for that influx when more doses arrive from now through April. The federal government announced Tuesday that it would ship another 5 percent of its current vaccine allocation to Utah, in addition to a 16 percent boost declared last week. Cox said this amounts to about 42,000 doses in total this week, plus 8,000 more shots the state received from federal partners. He added that Utah plans to get another 33,000 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine every week by late March, while 84,000 more doses per week of the AstraZeneca version of the vaccine could be arriving by April. Cox and state epidemiologist Angela Dunn stated that Utah will spend the rest of February allocating shots to people already eligible for the vaccine — mostly those 70 and older. The governor also promised that Utahns over 70 who are struggling to get shot appointments "will be able to get theirs" in the weeks ahead.