SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has administered over 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the governor’s office reported on Saturday.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox tweeted the announcement, calling it “an incredible milestone.”
It “speaks to the dedication of our public health teams and private partners. Thanks to everyone who stepped up in a historic way. We are just getting started,” he said.
Cox has been pushing hard to get more people vaccinated against COVID-19, but the state has struggled to get enough supply from manufacturers and the federal government to keep up with growing demand. Appointments for vaccines fill up quickly with Utah’s local health departments and partnering agencies, including grocery stores and pharmacies throughout the state.
The governor believes there will be enough vaccine in the state for every adult to be vaccinated be the end of April, which is a month earlier than the previously reported end of May availability.
Ramped up production and manufacturing processes have accelerated the delivery and administration of COVID-19 vaccines across the country, with a nearly 40% increase over February rates, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is tracking every dose. The first doses were given in mid-December in Utah.
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said 1,015,380 doses had been administered in Utah by Saturday.
“Hope is on the horizon!” she said.
The Utah Department of Health reported on Saturday that 1.16 million doses of vaccine have been delivered to Utah. More than half of those have gone to Salt Lake County, Utah’s most populous county. Doses are ordered and received based on population numbers.
At least 993,168 doses have been administered in the state, according to the health department, which said on Saturday that the governor’s office gets real time information, whereas the health department released updates daily. The report includes 25,687 doses administered since Friday’s report.
Two of the three available vaccine formulations, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, require at least two doses to achieve full efficacy. The health department reports 358,195 people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 using those, and a total of 658,970 people in Utah have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
The health department reported 491 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, which brings the total number of known infections in the last year to 377,983. The number of new cases has been gradually declining since earlier this year, following a massive surge of cases during the holidays.
Nearly 2.3 million people in Utah have been tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the state has processed more than 4 million tests, according to the health department.
There are 144 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 throughout Utah, down from 194 reportedly being treated at hospitals last Saturday.
The health department reported four new deaths on Saturday, including a Davis County man between the ages of 65 and 84 who was a long-term care facility resident; a Washington County woman between 65 and 84 who was hospitalized; a Davis County man between 65 and 84 who was hospitalized; and, a man between 45 and 64 who was not hospitalized and whose residence is unknown.
There have been 2,021 lives lost to COVID-19 in Utah since the beginning of the pandemic.