4 tips for getting a COVID-19 vaccine appointment booked sooner in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY – If you’re knocking down the door to get your COVID-19 vaccine but feel like you’re coming up short on finding an appointment in the near future, here are some tricks of the trade on how to find one, coming from a humble KSL Newsradio reporter who’s covered this story for the last week.

The state’s website, coronavirus.utah.gov is a great one-stop tool for all the links you need, and even breaks down vaccine distributors by local health departments, local pharmacies, and local healthcare providers. Those are the three major groups signing people up. But this article is going to help you know what you’re looking for once you get to that website.

First, some providers are booking appointments BEFORE March 24th when all adults in Utah are eligible for a shot. If you start here, you may have luck booking an appointment sooner because some local health departments are already booked up for weeks. 

TIP 1: Check with the little guy

There are five smaller vaccine distributors contracted with the state. At least two of them are listed under “healthcare providers” at Coronavirus.utah.gov. So you may not realize you can schedule with these groups, some of whom tell me they’re struggling to fill their appointments because they don’t think people know about them. They’re also worried that if they dont’ fill those appointments they won’t get more doses from the state. 

Community Nursing Services –  Vaccinating people at a high school in Roy, and Jr. high’s in Farr West and West Haven. They also have a West Valley CNS location. 

Nomi Health – Partnered with local LHM Megaplex Movie theatres to vaccinate people there. They have locations from Orem to Centerville. 

Hurricane Family Pharmacy  – There is a mass vaccination clinic Friday, March 26 at the Coral Cliffs Cinema in Hurricane from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. No appointment needed, just show up. 

Red Rock Pharmacy

Curative Wellness

TIP 2: Check with your health provider 

Several of Utah’s major healthcare systems are signing up their patients.

University of Utah Health says you can check your MyChart app to sign up or call 801-587-0712. 

Intermountain Healthare says the best option is to use intermountain.com/covidvacccine. They add new availability on Friday mornings. 

TIP 3: Know when local health departments open slots

Every local health department does their scheduling differently. Here’s when some of the major local health departments release appointments so you can try to be on their websites near these times.

Utah County: Opens slots for the following week Thrusday’s at 7PM

Salt Lake County: Opens chunks of appointments at a time. As of this writing they’re booked out through April 17th. 

Davis County: Opening slots to all Utahns Wednesday, March 24th. They’re booked out through April 3rd from previous eligability groups.  You can watch their website, sometimes they put “vaccine shopping” canceled appointments back online randomly. 

TIP 4: Seaching local pharmacies might prove unfruitful 

Using vaccinefinder.org you can search for local pharmacies and grocery stores near you who are offering and have vaccine in stock. I have not found this very fruitful because what’s “in stock” can be misleading. The website will list the vaccine as “in stock” if they’ve been given doses. Once you click futher you’ll find that many of the chains have no appointments available for weeks at a time. You can check back, but you may have better luck trying the suggestions above first.  

Have any tips I didn’t include? Please reach out at laerts@ksl.com.

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