Update 4/16: In his monthly press conference, Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced that the state is no longer discouraging individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 within the last 90 days to wait to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
He says Utah has a high enough supply of COVID-19 vaccines to allow for this change.
Individuals suffering from COVID-19 should wait to get vaccinated until they are no longer experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and have completed the recommended isolation period.
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — On March 24, Utahns aged 16 and older became eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
But those who have contracted the virus may wonder if, with their window of immunity, getting the vaccine right away is best.
According to Jenny Johnson, Public Information Officer with the Utah Department of Health, people who have had COVID-19 can safely be vaccinated.
The only “rule” about being vaccinated after being infected with the virus, she says, is that people must have completed the quarantine period and be symptom-free.
“There is no reason why someone should not get the vaccine after being infected,” Johnson says.
FILE – In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, Dr. Cedric Waechter, left, administers the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to a resident of the Bois Fleuris nursing home in Strasbourg in eastern France. As France examines why its vaccination campaign has started so slowly, the answer lies partly in the red tape and the government’s decision to start with perhaps the toughest group to reach: the elderly in nursing homes. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File) 
FILE – In this Dec. 24, 2020, file photo, Healthcare workers wait in line to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Seton Medical Center in Daly City, Calif. Only about 1% of California’s 40 million residents have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, that the pace is “not good enough” as the virus continues to ravage the state. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) 
In this Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, photo provided by Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, registered nurse Starla Garcia prepares a coronavirus vaccine in Chinle, Ariz., for someone who enrolled in the COVID-19 vaccine trials on the Navajo Nation and initially received a placebo. (Nina Mayer Ritchie/Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health via AP) 
An employee of the Municipal Health Service GGD administers a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to a health care worker at a coronavirus vaccination facility in Houten, central Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) 
CVS Pharmacist Gerard Diebner prepares COVID-19 vaccine for nursing home residents at Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Officials are pushing for more COVID-19 vaccine doses as the effort to speed up inoculations collides with a lack of vaccine. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that the city will run out of first doses of COVID-19 vaccine sometime Thursday without fresh supplies. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File) 
FILE – In this Oct. 9, 2020, file photo, a health worker, right, administers the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine currently on phase III clinical trials to Cem Gun, an emergency medicine physician at the Acibadem Hospital in Istanbul. The World Bank has approved $12 billion in financing to help developing countries buy and distribute coronavirus vaccines, tests, and treatments, aiming to support the vaccination of up to 1 billion people, the bank said in a statement late Tuesday, Oct. 13. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File) 
FILE – In this Jan. 9, 2021, file photo, vials of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are placed next to a loaded syringe in Throop, Pa. On Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021, California’s state epidemiologist Dr. Erica S. Pan recommended providers stop using lot 41L20A of the Moderna vaccine pending completion of an investigation by state officials, Moderna, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the federal Food and Drug Administration, because some people received medical treatment for possible severe allergic reactions. (Christopher Dolan/The Times-Tribune via AP, File)
However, people with ongoing COVID-19 symptoms, or long haulers, should consult their physician before getting vaccinated, she adds.
Though people who have had COVID-19 can and should be vaccinated, they may consider waiting depending on vaccine availability. This is because we know that there is a 90- day window of immunity after natural infection from the virus, Johnson explains.
The CDC says that there is evidence that the chance of reinfection is low in the months after infection with COVID-19, but the risk of infection grows as the time from initial infection passes.
Therefore, “while vaccine supply remains limited, persons with recent documented acute SARS-CoV-2 infection may choose to temporarily delay vaccination, if desired, recognizing that the risk of reinfection, and therefore the need for vaccination, may increase with time following initial infection,” CDC’s website states.
Especially in places where the number of vaccines is low, those with this natural immunity may want to save the vaccines for those who do not have immunity.
In fact, Utah Governor Spencer Cox brought this up in an executive order in early January. He announced that anyone who has had COVID-19 in the last 90 days should not get vaccinated at this time due to a low chance of reinfection.
“If you’ve had a positive COVID-19 test in the past 90 days, you should not receive a vaccine… while we don’t know how long immunity to the virus lasts after receiving it, we have enough data to show that reinfection is very, very, very rare… if we want to achieve herd immunity, we shouldn’t waste vaccines on people who’ve had the virus already and absolutely have some very strong immunity at least over the first 90 days…,” Gov. Cox shares.
Those who have gone 90 days since infection should then be vaccinated, Johnson says.
Learn more about Utah’s COVID-19 distribution and stay up to date with the latest from the state.
