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Gov. Cox Gets Vaccine, Announces Financial Relief For Family Members Of People Who Died From COVID

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox got the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Spanish Fork Thursday.
Gov. Spencer Cox Facebook Livestream
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox got the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Spanish Fork Thursday.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced Thursday that families who have lost loved ones to the virus will soon qualify for financial support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency through the latest federal COVID relief package.

“Any families who have lost loved ones after Jan. 20 of last year will be eligible,” he said. “They will begin this funeral assistance in April.”

Nearly 2,100 Utahns have died from the virus since the start of the pandemic. Nationally, more than 545,000 people have lost their lives from COVID-19.

Cox and First Lady Abby Cox also got their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination clinic in Spanish Fork in Utah County during the governor’s weekly press conference.

“I’m not sure exactly what word I should use to describe how Abby and I are feeling today,” Cox said. “We are excited, we’re overjoyed, we’re relieved, we’re just more than anything else humbled and grateful as we reflect back on the past year.”

Their shots happened on the second day that everyone in Utah 16 and older was eligible for vaccination.

Cox encouraged everyone to continue to wear masks and practice physical distancing, even as more of the state gets vaccinated.

“A surge in cases right now is completely avoidable,” he said. “As restrictions lessen and change, we still ask you to please be careful. All of those things that you’ve been doing, we need to keep doing because the end is so close and in sight.”

The governor signed a bill into law Wednesday that ends the statewide mask mandate on April 10.

State health officials reported 527 new cases Thursday. The week-long positivity rate for tests is less than 4%.

Emily Means is a government and politics reporter at KUER.
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