As more Utah hospitals receive COVID-19 vaccine, state reports 30 new deaths and a plateau in cases

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Vaccine shipments are reaching Utah faster than expected.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Braden Durney receives a COVID-19 vaccine from Brandon Widdison, as Lehi’s Mountain Point Medical Center dispenses its first COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday, December 17, 2020.

| December 17, 2020 at 6:46 p.m.

| Update: December 18, 2020 at 5:38 am

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A second wave of COVID-19 vaccine shipments has arrived in Utah, with more and more hospitals across the state starting to give vaccines to their frontline workers.

And as providers find they can sometimes withdraw a sixth dose from the vials, which are labeled as having five doses, the supply goes further than expected.

Meanwhile, the number of new coronavirus cases in the state peaked on Thursday. With 3,203 new diagnoses reported, the rate of new diagnoses in Utah has remained stable at 2,570 cases per day, the Utah Department of Health reported.

Another 30 deaths have been reported, bringing Utah’s death toll to 1,126 from COVID-19 on Thursday, marking the end of the virus’s deadliest two weeks since the start of the pandemic. Hospitalizations held steady with 556 Utah patients admitted concurrently.

Yet “our hospital intensive care units continue to operate above [normal] capacity, ”Dr. Angela Dunn, state epidemiologist, said at Thursday’s press conference. That, combined with the 30 new deaths, are indicators that “while there is a lot of hope on the horizon with the vaccine, we still have a long way to go,” Dunn said.

“Please, as we move forward into the winter holiday season,” she said, “it is so important that we continue to limit the number of new cases.”

The Utah Department of Health has started tracking vaccine doses on its coronavirus dashboard. As of noon Thursday, 407 doses had been reported as distributed statewide. That number should be less than the actual number of doses given per day, a spokesperson for UDOH said.
Steward Health Care, which operates five regional hospitals in Utah, learned Wednesday evening that she would be receiving the Pfizer version of the vaccine, said Jodi DeJong, a spokesperson for the company.
Each regional hospital received a vaccine box, which contains around 975 doses, DeJong said. Healthcare workers at Lehi’s Mountain Point Medical Center received and began administering the first doses on Thursday, and other sites were working to get theirs to employees as quickly as possible, DeJong said.
Three small hospitals run by Intermountain Healthcare – McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, Logan Hospital in Logan and Alta View Hospital in Sandy – have either received shipments on Thursday or within the next few days, Lance Madigan said, a spokesperson for Intermountain. McKay-Dee administered around 250 doses on Thursday, he said.
St. Mark’s Hospital in Salt Lake City on Thursday received a box of the Pfizer vaccine, containing 975 doses, said Chris Taylor, spokesperson for MountainStar Healthcare.

According to Jill Vicory, spokeswoman for the Utah Hospital Association, up to two dozen smaller hospitals received doses on Thursday or will do so on Sunday.

Shipments are moving faster than expected, DeJong said. In the Utah Department of Health’s earlier planning, small regional hospitals like Mountain Point were not to receive vaccines until the Moderna Inc. vaccine was available.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve Moderna’s vaccine by Friday, with distribution starting soon after.

Frontline workers at two Salt Lake City hospitals, the University of Utah Hospital and LDS Hospital, began receiving doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday. Three other large hospitals – Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, and Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George – followed quickly.

Intermountain Medical, LDS and Utah Valley administered about 400 doses each Thursday, Madigan said.

Sabrina Cole, chief pharmacy officer at Intermountain Healthcare, said Intermountain pharmacies have noticed that they can sometimes withdraw a sixth dose from the five-dose COVID-19 vaccine vials.

The overflow, which is common in the pharmaceutical industry to account for spills and unused material, was noted by the FDA at other hospitals on Wednesday. The discovery could mean up to 20% more doses that can be administered.

“So far we’ve been able to get six doses from most vials,” Cole said.

Erin Fox, senior director of pharmacy at the University of Utah Health, said her pharmacists had also noticed that overfilling each vial “was enough for an extra dose.” Things moved pretty quickly, and [Wednesday], as soon as the FDA gave its approval, we started using these extra doses.

Pharmacies, following instructions from Pfizer and the FDA, do not combine leftovers from different vials to make a full dose, Cole said.

The virus is probably still spreading

Dr Miles Hawley, an Intermountain doctor, said in a Facebook Live chat that he was delighted to have been vaccinated on Wednesday. But “the only thing I want to warn people about,” he added, is that “now is not the time to let our guard down on wearing masks and social distancing.

“We can’t let the excitement of the vaccine stop us from continuing the progress we’re making by wearing headgear.”

Over the past week, 22.26% of all coronavirus tests in Utah came back positive – the lowest rate since December 1, but still high enough to indicate that large numbers of those infected do not are not tested and may unintentionally spread the virus. state officials said.

There were 12,885 new test results reported on Thursday, slightly above the weeklong average of about 12,300 new tests per day.

A total of 9,791 patients have been hospitalized in Utah for COVID-19, up from more than 600 last week.

The 30 new deaths reported on Thursday were:

  • A Morgan County woman over 85.

  • Two women from Weber County, aged 65 to 84.

  • A man from Iron County aged 65 to 84.

  • A man from Washington County aged 65 to 84.

  • Four women from Salt Lake County who were over 85.

  • Two men from Salt Lake County who were over 85 years old.

  • Two men from Weber County, aged 45 to 64.

  • A Weber County woman over 85.

  • A man from Carbon County aged 45 to 64.

  • Two men from Cache County, aged 65 to 84.

  • Two women from Salt Lake County, aged 65 to 84.

  • Two women from Utah County, aged 65 to 84.

  • A woman from Box Elder County aged 65 to 84.

  • A man from Davis County aged 65 to 84.

  • A woman from Sevier County over the age of 85.

  • A man from Salt Lake County aged 65 to 84.

  • A man from Sanpete County aged 65 to 84.

  • A Weber County woman aged 45 to 64.

  • Two men from Utah County, aged 65 to 84.

  • A man from Utah County aged 45 to 64.

– Journalist Paighten Harkins contributed to this story.

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