SALT LAKE CITY — Beginning on Friday, Gov. Spencer Cox has authorized COVID-19 booster shots to any Utahn over the age of 18.

The decision was made based on the state’s continuing high rate of infection.

“We just want to make it very simple, especially as we head into the holiday season,” Cox said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have not yet authorized the booster for everyone. However, with Utah’s high transmission numbers and overloaded hospitalizations, Cox said most of the state is considered high risk and emphasized the importance of getting the booster if it’s been six months since a recipient’s initial dose.

Dr. Michelle Hoffman, deputy director at the Utah Department of Health, said everyone’s care in the hospital is going to suffer if the state doesn’t get the current surge under control.

“We are still continuing to exceed hospital rates for COVID-19. The number in the ICU is hovering around 40%,” she said. “Yesterday in the ICU, we had zero beds in the Intermountain health system. This continues to be a challenging problem, particularly as we move into flu season. It really is a crisis. If you want to avoid the disease, you should get boosted.”

Dr. Leisha Nolen, state epidemiologist at UDOH, said with the rates of transmission the state is seeing, herd immunity is not here.

“We’re very happy we’re getting little kids vaccinated,” Nolen said. “We have a lot of young kids here and we have a lot of school cases. We really hope by getting them vaccinated we can get the case numbers down.”

Nolen said no vaccine is 100% effective and data has shown the COVID-19 immune response to wane over six months, so vaccinated people are still at risk of becoming infected.

“It really depends on how your body responds to the vaccine. Some people get a really strong response and won’t get COVID after that, but some people are a little more susceptible,” she said. “Even when you get COVID, it’s different for everyone. But if you get a breakthrough infection, it should be much milder if you’re vaccinated.”

Utah and Massachusetts became the latest states Thursday to open COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to all adults despite it not yet being authorized by the U.S. government, following several others including California, New Mexico, Arkansas, West Virginia and Colorado in the last week. New York City made a similar move.

Pfizer asked U.S. regulators last week to allow boosters of its COVID-19 vaccine for anyone 18 or older. The FDA is expected to decided on Pfizer’s application before the advisory panel meets Friday. The final step — CDC’s official recommendation — could come soon after the meeting.

Utah had the 10th-highest diagnosis rate of COVID cases in the U.S. Thursday, with the average daily cases rising 14% in the last two weeks.

As of Thursday, 1,789 new cases and 13 deaths from the previous day were reported by UDOH.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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