OGDEN, Utah – The COVID-19 vaccine rollout for Weber and Morgan counties gets underway Jan. 5 at the Dee Events Center on the campus of Weber State University.
Healthcare workers in non-hospital settings (medical, dental, EMS) are the first priority group to participate in the invitation-only clinics. Similar clinics will continue each week as Utah’s public health system works its way through a timeline for distribution to high-risk groups. Weber-Morgan Health Department receives a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines each week and will distribute them as quickly as they arrive. For more information on the timeline see coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine.
The health department received its first shipment of the vaccine on Monday, Dec. 28 and began vaccinating staff, volunteers and emergency responders who will work at the clinics.
“We are excited to finally turn this important corner in our community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Brian Bennion, executive director of the Weber-Morgan Health Department. “As your local health department, we are prepared to oversee this operation until there is enough vaccine to serve everyone who wants and needs it. There are many moving parts that go into protecting our community from this new virus, and we couldn’t do it without our community partners.”
Weber-Morgan Health Department employees, volunteers from the Weber-Morgan Medical Reserve Corps, Ogden City Fire, Weber Fire District and Weber State University will staff the weekly clinics.
“Weber State University is pleased to have the volunteers, staff and facility at the Dee Events Center to help support our community in distributing this life-saving vaccine,” said Dane LeBlanc, WSU director of public safety. “We have a long-standing relationship with Weber Morgan Health, which allows us to work together quickly and efficiently when there is a need.”
Area hospitals have already begun vaccinating their frontline staff and private contractors will assist in vaccinating employees of long-term care facilities and employees in the Ogden, Weber and Morgan School districts. Once these frontline workers are vaccinated, the focus of the COVID-19 campaign will turn to Utahns over age 75 and others with health conditions as determined by the state’s timeline of distribution.
Bennion credited Weber State University for making it possible to build the capacity to serve residents in Weber and Morgan counties.
“We are so grateful to have Weber State University in our backyard,” Bennion said. “They have made their facility and staff available to us and have been active participants in keeping this community safe throughout this pandemic.”
University President Brad Mortensen said the Ogden area has a history of coming together to help each other in times of need. Historical news accounts detail how residents rallied in 1918 to protect the community and care for soldiers who brought the Spanish Influenza virus with them as they returned home from World War I. According to a 50-year retrospective in the Ogden Standard-Examiner, schools closed, residents wore masks and Ogden High School was slated to become a makeshift hospital.
“Without the sacrifices that have been undertaken time and again from our community, Weber State University would not be the university it is today,”Mortensen said. “One of our core themes is to reciprocate that support back to our community. It only makes sense during a worldwide pandemic that we would assist Weber-Morgan Health and our larger community in any way possible.”