Utah hospitals are “still in the thick of it,” at least overcrowded for the next few weeks, as the state’s decline in COVID-19 case numbers has apparently stalled, a doctor with the region’s largest healthcare provider said Friday.
© Shafkat Anowar, desert news
Minka Tasevac will receive a Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from Nurse Jon Hight at the Salt Lake Public Health Center on September 30, 2021.
“We’re basically just sticking to 100%. We are still full and what is driving the COVID-19 cases, ”said Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious disease doctor at Intermountain Healthcare, told reporters during a virtual press conference.
He said at the beginning of the week that it is hoped that the cases will continue to decline. The 7-day average of the cases, which had risen relatively constantly since the start of the increase fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant in July to a high of just over 1,600 in mid-September, was around 1,400.
But the number of cases hit 1,975 on Wednesday, 1,800 on Thursday and 1,637 on Friday. In those three days, a total of 32 new deaths from COVID-19 were reported in Utah, including 11 on Friday. Utah’s death toll from the virus now stands at 2,994.
Unlike Florida and other largely southern states, which saw a huge spike in coronavirus cases over the summer, which then fell sharply, Stenehjem said cases in Utah peaked around the time school started and the decline was slow.
The latest data from Utah “really shows that we are on a high plateau,” he said. “I therefore assume that we will probably stay at this level of utilization in our hospitals for at least a few more weeks. That assumes our cases start going down in the next week or so. So we’re still right in the middle of it. “
Last month, Intermountain Healthcare announced that postponing non-emergency surgeries in 13 Utah hospitals is a decision described as a drastic move to treat an overwhelming number of COVID-19 patients. At that time, the daily number of cases was above the 2,000 mark, which had not been seen since mid-January.
It goes on, said Stenehjem.
“We didn’t have to turn off urgent surgeries,” he said because many, including heart surgery, require recovery time in intensive care units that occupy beds for patients with COVID-19. “We just don’t have the space for it.”
The postponed operations are not elective, said the doctor, but for “people who have a stroke due to a blood clot in their arteries or blockages in the heart. You need these operations. But unfortunately we cannot offer them at the moment because they cannot be treated post-operatively. “
Stenehjem said patients are also being moved between hospitals and some from neighboring states refuse.
There are concerns about what winter will bring as the worst pandemic yet has occurred, thanks in part to the indoor celebrations during the seasonal holidays, as the coronavirus vaccine is only available in Utah and the rest of the world was asked.
“I think people are nervous about what will happen when we go into the winter months. In January we had the hope that vaccines would hit the market. Shortly afterwards it goes into summer. Now it’s just that worry that we’re heading into exactly this kind of cold, dark winter, ”said Stenehjem.
The hope, he said, is that hospitals can weather the latest surge in cases before the holiday season begins.
Already now, Stenehjem said, Utah is seeing a “fairly significant increase” in RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, in children. Both RSV and flu cases were virtually non-existent last winter when the Utahners masked each other and took other precautionary measures to stop the deadly virus from spreading.
Whether the state is facing a difficult flu season remains to be seen, he said, urging Utahners to get a flu shot.
COVID-19 vaccinations, now widely available to everyone 12 and older, could soon be approved for children 5 and older, a prospect Stenehjem said was “incredibly exciting”. Just over 53% of all Utahners are fully vaccinated against the virus, which means it has been two weeks or more since they received a single or second dose.
A little more difficult to know if COVID-19 cases are going back is home testing kits for the virus, the doctor said, as these results may not count towards the state count. Still, he said the do-it-yourself testing was a “good thing”.
Stenehjem said he did not anticipate any further spike in virus cases this winter, admitting it would be difficult to predict.
Still, he said that since more than half of all Utahns are vaccinated and others with some degree of natural immunity after COVID-19 illness, “the number of people in our community who are susceptible to serious illness is this winter much less than last winter. That is an advantage for us. “
Utah’s Latest COVID-19 Numbers
There have been 520,190 cases of COVID-19 in the state since the pandemic began in March 2020, including the 1,637 cases reported by the Utah Department of Health on Friday. A total of 362 of these cases occurred in school-age children – 187 in 5 to 10 year olds; 77 for 11 to 13 year olds; and 98 for 14 to 17 year olds.
The 7-day rolling average for positive tests is 1,424 per day. As of Thursday, the state has tested 10,319 people for the virus and performed 18,982 tests, making the seven-day moving average for the percent positivity of the tests 15.4% if all results were included and 10.2% if multiple tests were excluded Person results.
More than 3.5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been given in Utah, an increase of 9,292 daily.
According to the state analysis, Utahners who were not vaccinated had a 15.8 times higher risk of dying from the virus, 12.1 times higher risk of hospitalization, and 6.8 times higher risk of dying from the virus in the past 28 days. times higher risk of testing positive than those who took the shots.
There are currently 572 people being hospitalized with COVID-19 in Utah. The state’s death toll stands at 2,994, with 11 new deaths reported as of Friday. They are:
– A Sanpete County woman, between 65 and 84, who was hospitalized at the time of death
– A Uintah County man aged 65 to 84 who was hospitalized at the time of death
– A Cache County man aged 45 to 64 who was hospitalized at the time of death
– A Sanpete County man aged 65 to 84 who was hospitalized at the time of death
– A Washington County woman, between 65 and 84, who was hospitalized at the time of death
– A Salt Lake County man aged 45 to 64 who was hospitalized at the time of death
– A Juab County man between 65 and 84 who was hospitalized at the time of death
– A Sanpete County man aged 65 to 84 who was hospitalized at the time of death
– A Utah County man between 25 and 44 who was hospitalized at the time of death
– A Sanpete County man aged 65 to 84 who was hospitalized at the time of death
– A Weber County man, aged 65 to 84, resident in a long-term care facility
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