OGDEN, Utah – In Northern Utah, it’s a high demand and low supply for the elderly looking to get the COVID-19 vaccine. There are more people wanting to get vaccinated, and not enough doses to go around.
1500 slots filled up in just 20 minutes to get the Pfizer vaccine, according to the Bear River Health Department spokesperson, Josh Greer.
“So we definitely have more of a demand than we have a supply right now, the health department has been getting on average 2000 total doses a week,” said Greer.
Last week, the Bear River Health Department gave over 300 doses of the vaccine to the elderly and will continue distribution this week.
“We have a couple of clinics with about 1500 doses available for our 70 and older population,” said Greer.
Greer says they will add more slots Wednesday for the upcoming weeks.
“The appointment slots are really going that fast, so it is frustrating, we have so many people that want that vaccine and can only do as much as our allotment allows,” said Greer.
The Weber-Morgan Health Department is distributing the first round of the Moderna vaccine to the elderly Wednesday and those appointment slots are also filled.
“Between 12 and 13,000 individuals just in the 70 years and older age range have reached out to us and we only have 1800 appointments that we can register for next week’s clinic,” said Jesse Bush, of the Weber-Morgan Health Department.
Health department leaders say it could be a couple of months until everyone who wants a vaccine can get it.
“What we’ve done, is taken down individuals name, number and if they do have an email and ask if they need assistance so when appointments do become available, we can call them,” said Bush.
Leaders from both Weber-Morgan and Bear River Health Departments are asking for people to be patient and head to their website every week to check available time slots.