Months ago, Summit County launched a pre-registration system to gather names and contact information so vaccine appointment invitations could be sent at a later date. Not knowing the Governor’s plan related to vaccine priority groups at the time, we delineated the pre-registration into age groups which included 40-54 and 55-64. We had over 6300 people pre-register in these two groups before March 4. We were unable to sort persons based on the qualifying age of 50 in these existing groups.
We’ve worked hard to remove barriers to people being vaccinated. Rather than discard the pre-registration information and start over, Summit County made the decision to allow appointment registration for all individuals in these two groups who pre-registered before March 4.
In the hours since this announcement, we have worked with the Utah Department of Health and the Governor’s Office to more closely align with the priorities established by Governor Cox. We will assist the 6300 individuals between the ages of 40 and 64, who pre-registered before March 4, to book their vaccination appointments. Once these individuals have had the opportunity to register for an appointment, future appointments will be limited to persons aged 50 and over, and those with qualifying co-existing conditions, until further expansion of vaccine priority groups.
-Dr. Rich Bullough
Summit County Health Department Director