FILE: Alta High School. District officials are working out their vaccine distribution plans now, including how many doses each district needs. Photo: KSL TV
Utah school districts are starting to give a count of how many COVID-19 vaccines they will need for the teachers and staff.
Gov. Gary Herbert included educators in phase 1 of the vaccine rollout plan.
They don’t have an exact date yet for school districts to get the COVID vaccines, but expect them in January.
The Washington County School District told the state they will need 3,800 doses for full- and part-time staff and substitute teachers, according to the St. George News.
It sounds like the local health departments in Southern Utah will distribute the COVID-19 vaccines with the school districts there.
KSL Newsradio reached out to school districts along the Wasatch Front.
The Canyons School District says they sent a survey to all employees — teachers, principals, bus driver, cafeteria workers and district support staff — asking them to indicate if they planned to participate.
“This will give us an idea of how many doses we will need to order,” said district spokesman Jeff Haney.
Haney said they need their employees to fill out that survey as soon as possible, because they have to place the order by late Friday afternoon.
Canyons also plans to have school nurses and contracted nurses help administer the vaccines in school-wide vaccination clinics in mid-January.
“It will take a great deal of planning, but is an event our district is looking forward to. We are asking every employee to seriously consider participating,” Haney said.
The Nebo School District said it also plans to survey teachers and staff, to see how many doses to request.
The state’s two largest school districts, Alpine and Davis, told KSL Newsradio they did not know how the vaccines would be administered to educators and staff, or when, but believed it would be by late January.
Alpine said it had not submitted anything to the state for vaccination orders, but they were asked how many employees they had.
The Salt Lake City School District told KSL NewsRadio it requested vaccination orders by Jan. 8 or 9 — but that’s not confirmed yet.
The Granite School District said they were told by the State Board of Education to provide total employment numbers and so they have provided that.
But a Davis spokesman said he was not sure if they had been asked for their numbers, and he believed they would provide them to the Davis County Health Department.
The Murray City School District said it estimates roughly 900 vaccines for its vaccination rounds on Jan. 14 and 15 at Hillcrest Junior High School. Those two days are scheduled teacher workdays, so students will already be out of class.
The Jordan School District spokeswoman did not respond.
Education officials don’t expect to make the vaccine mandatory. But health officials say it can help keep educators healthy and schools open.
Utah’s Coronavirus Information
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Utah Coronavirus Information Line – 1-800-456-7707
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention