Utah shuttering mass vaccination centers as demand for shots wanes

Many of Utah’s COVID-19 mass vaccination centers have begun to shut down as demand wanes and other sites become available for the shots. Arenas and convention halls that have been the locale for hundreds of thousands of Utahns to get the shots are closing as doctor’s offices, pharmacies and temporary walk-up clinics that are set up in businesses, churches and communities become more accessible. Even some summer events such as community festivals will offer vaccination sites.

“We’re kind of in a more long-term vaccination effort,” Rich Lakin, Utah Department of Health immunization director, said of the mass vaccinations ending as demand for the coronavirus vaccine declines. “You’ve got lots of options to go get vaccinated.”

Lakin said since mid-May, Utah has not needed to order new first doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the federal government and at least some of the state’s population-based allotment likely will be donated to a federal pool for states that need more.

“It’s what we anticipated. We knew at some point the demand was going to go down and we’d have too much vaccine for what the demand was,” he said. “That’s why some of the mass vaccination clinics are being phased down.”

Lakin said Utah has not yet reached its goal of vaccinating at least 70 percent of residents 16 and older.

Vaccines are available to anyone 12 and older, but just 38 percent of all Utahns were fully vaccinated as of a report from the Department of Health two weeks ago.

Other states are in a similar situation as Utah when it comes to vaccine supplies exceeding current demand, Lakin said. However, he said mass vaccination sites might need to be ramped up again this fall if booster shots become necessary. For now, though, most of the sites that accommodated the crowds initially clamoring for the vaccine in Utah will be shut down by the end of June.