“We’re starting to cross that threshold between where demand has outweighed supply; now supply is starting to outweigh demand a little bit,” Gov. Cox said in his weekly news conference Thursday.
Michael Briggs, a Salt Lake City resident, logged on to look for a shot early on.
“Went through the Walgreens website and was just able to find appointments. I don’t know if I was just lucky, but I was able to get it right then and there,” Briggs said.
Now, he’s fully vaccinated. He’s part of the nearly 2 million people vaccinated in the state. State epidemiologist, Dr. Angela Dunn, says those 2 million were those eager to get vaccinated.
Now, “we have heard from vaccine providers that demand for COVID-19 vaccine is starting to soften. This is not totally unexpected,” Dunn said.
Dunn says we’re getting to the point where there are people hesitant or holding off on getting vaccinated.
The Davis County Health Department had 1,000 first dose appointments available for the remainder of the week, as of Thursday.
The Davis County Health Department still has 1,000 appointments available for the first dose of COVID vaccine this week. (KUTV)
Utah County is in a similar situation, said Aislynn Tolman-Hill, spokesperson for the county health department. She said they anticipate approximately 1,500 appointments “potentially left open at the end of this week.”
She says they are starting to see a bit of a drop in demand for vaccine appointments, and in the past few weeks, Utah County has started ordering about 1,000 fewer doses from the state.
That may free up doses for other counties with higher demands.
“Salt Lake County is still booked, but we’re moving doses here so that we can deal with that demand here,” Cox explained.
That’s helping Salt Lake County meet demand faster, said Nicholas Rupp, spokesman for the county health department.
“Until yesterday, we were booked through the month of April. Every appointment we had was filled,” Rupp said. “The state let us know (Wednesday) that they would be sending us additional doses.”
The county was able to add the appointments to the calendar the same day, opening up appointments for the week of April 26.
For those waiting, Cox says, “To all of you, I want to say that now is your time. We’re ready for you, we have ample doses.”
