OGDEN, Utah – The Ogden City Fire Department is going through their first phase of vaccinations in the battle against COVID-19, in conjunction with the Weber-Morgan Health Department. ABC4’s Northern Utah Correspondent, Jordan Verdaderio gives us an inside look.
The Weber-Morgan Health department received the first shipment of the Moderna vaccine last week and began vaccinating staff, volunteers and emergency responders who will work at the clinics.
“We started last week so that we could help vaccinate the public,” shares Mike Slater the department fire Chief.
Slater says the vaccine isn’t mandatory. 80% of it’s more than 100 first responders have received it. A dozen fire-fighters have had COVID-19.
“The fire department runs an ambulance service, we ran over 20,000 911 calls last year, COVID is prevalent throughout the community and we’re responding on those patients every single day,” Slater adds.
Slater says the department also helps transfer COVID-19 patients from hospital to hospital, due to overcapacity.
“So it’s important that our people, that are exposed are vaccinated so they can safely deal with people with COVID,” he concludes.
The state health department is providing antigen tests for the Ogden Fire Department, to allow first responders to plan around positive cases.