A spokesman for the state health department said Utah was expected to receive about 32,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses each week following “irregularities” in vaccination between the federal government and the states.
The state has received 25,000 doses, according to an update from Utah’s health department on Monday. The new weekly estimate means Utah is likely to fall short of the original expected 154,000 vaccine doses by the end of December.
Utah was among the states that reported late last week that it had not received as many vaccine doses as in the first week after the Phaser-Bioentech vaccine was approved by federal regulators. The Associated Press reports that Army General Gustave Parna apologized to Gaffe over the weekend, and called for an “incorrect response” to the original vaccine estimate.
“I am the one who approved the forecast sheets. I was the one who approved the allocation,” Parna said during a telephone briefing with reporters, according to the AP. “There is no problem with the procedure. No problem with the Pfizer vaccine. No problem with the Moderna vaccine.”
Now it looks like the distribution Snefu has changed how many vaccines Utah will receive by the end of the year, even though the state has got the modern vaccine. A health department spokesman told KSL.com on Tuesday that Utah officials now expect 16,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 16,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine per week. If it maintains that estimate, it will deliver less than 100,000 doses to Utah by the end of the year.
It is not clear how the adjusted figures will affect the estimated timeline when some groups, such as long-term care facility residents or teachers, will be given given access to the vaccine.
Where vaccines are going
It’s been a week since Utah health care facilities began vaccinating frontline workers. Shortly after it began, the Utah Department of Health began providing statistics on COVID-19 vaccinations in the state.
As per the update of COVID-19 on Monday, about 6,520 administrations have been made in the state. This data doesn’t seem overly exciting as it only reflects hospital staff at this stage, but it does show that the gap when the first five hospitals in the state vaccinated the next 30 health care facilities was much smaller than originally considered.
The Department of Health, which estimated in November that the gap could be as long as two weeks, reported that some health roads were vaccinated in all districts but before San Juan and Tricount (Dagget, Duchessin and Utah counties) were vaccinated. In a week. The first five hospitals cover only three of the 13 districts.
Not surprisingly, Salt Lake County – the health district with the most health facilities, received the most vaccinations by noon on Monday. 69,6988 vaccines have been given, which is about 57% of all vaccines given so far, according to the health department.
Understanding the UK’s emerging COVID-19 strain
A recent international story is gaining interest among researchers worldwide, including Utah.
Health officials in the United Kingdom say a new form of the novel coronavirus is spreading in the country faster than the original strain suggested. The strain, known as B1.1.7, was first documented in September and accounted for about a quarter of all cases in mid-November, Science magazine reported. It reached 60% in London early last week, with scientists saying the change is 70% more transmissible than the previous impressive stress.
As noted by the New York Times, Prime Minister Boris Johnson tightened restrictions in London and many parts of south-east London in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus strain. Some European countries also banned travel from the UK as a result of the spread.
It is worth noting that experts pointed out very early in the epidemic that SARS-Co-2, which causes Covid-19, has already been transformed into various strains. The big questions are whether the UK’s new strain is more lethal or hinders COVID-19 vaccine efforts, especially if it appears in other parts of the world.
So far, researchers say they don’t believe it will happen. In an interview with KSL TV on Monday, Dr. Shankar Swaminath, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Utah Health University, explained that there have been changes in the spike protein used by the virus to invade human cells. He said there was no evidence that experts believed it was dangerous or would thwart vaccination efforts in the UK.
He said the vaccine helps make antibodies to different parts of the spike protein. So when someone is vaccinated, their immune system provides many protections against the spike protein of the coronavirus, even if its parts change.
“While it is possible for a virus to change its spike protein and replace it, it will be very difficult to change it so completely that the vaccine will still not remove useful antibodies,” Swaminath said.
Dr Vineet Manacheri, a coronavirus specialist at the University of Texas Medical College, also said the new change in the UK was unlikely to disrupt the two available COVID-19 vaccines, in an interview with NPR on Monday.
“It takes years of drastic change to form before a virus can pass a vaccine,” Manacheri told the news outlet. It is a potential long-term concern, but almost certainly not a short-term issue that will continue vaccination efforts now.
“The vaccines that have been developed to generate a widespread response have actually been counterproductive. And so this vaccine uses our immune system to target many parts of the virus.” “And so in this case, we have one or two different parts, but we’re targeting with vaccines, multiple parts. And so it’s really hard for the virus to overcome it in a short period of time like ours. ‘I’m talking here.”
Swaminath added that while the change could be a new strain, public health officials should not be distracted from getting enough vaccines to stop the spread of CIVID-19.
Contribution: Jade Boal, KSL TV
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