[ad_1]
Intermountain Healthcare is postponing surgeries at 13 Utah hospitals – including for urgent but non-fatal medical conditions – as the region’s largest healthcare provider is overwhelmed with largely unvaccinated COVID-19 patients.
Friday’s announcement came shortly before the Utah Department of Health reported 2,189 new cases of COVID-19 and 21 more deaths from the virus. This is the second day in a row that cases have surpassed the 2,000 mark last reached in mid-January.
“Today I wish I had never arrived,” Dr. Marc Harrison, President and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, told reporters at a virtual press conference. Harrison urged the Utahns to get vaccinated against the deadly virus, warning that “the cavalry is not coming. We are the cavalry.
Although he said “drastic action” was needed to preserve public health, Harrison said Intermountain Healthcare will not make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for employees and suggested that the president’s sweeping new order Joe Biden for vaccine mandates for as many as 100 million Americans won’t solve the crisis.
“Obviously, we don’t think mandates are the answer to all problems,” he said.
Harrison said that Intermountain Healthcare has “chosen not to impose a vaccine. We are north of 80% for a vaccination rate and we are improving every day. We believe in the ability of people to make decisions for themselves – themselves and they usually make what I consider to be very, very good decisions and more every day.
Just over half of all Utahns are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, which means it has been two weeks or more since their last dose. Last week, the University of Utah Health announced a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for staff that allows medical or religious exemptions. About 75% are already vaccinated, spokeswoman Kathy Wilets said.
Some 87% of Intermountain Healthcare patients hospitalized with the virus are unvaccinated, Harrison said.
They are about 20 years younger and tend to have fewer medical problems than patients infected with the virus who have been vaccinated, he said, making them a pandemic of unvaccinated and medically fragile people. Harrison, who has incurable blood cancer, is included in this group.
Currently, he said, Intermountain Healthcare has around 350 COVID-19 patients, a number that is “increasing day by day” and filling around half of the beds in intensive care units that are operating at 100% of their capacity. . This leaves no room for people with urgent but non-life-threatening health care needs, such as a painful pinched nerve.
“This is very sad for me. I have immense empathy for all segments of our population, including those who have chosen not to be vaccinated,” said Harrison, adding that he can only assume that ‘they made this decision without acknowledging the impact on others of “a largely unvaccinated population that is clogging our health care system.”
He said he’s not impatient with the Utahns who have decided not to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but with the situation, and his “hope is that people understand they will choose, like the Utahns have been doing it for so long, to be part of the solution and to help their neighbors.
The 13 hospitals where surgeries are postponed for what is expected to be several weeks from Monday do not include those in rural communities, the specialist orthopedic hospital known as TOSH in Murray or the Primary Children’s Hospital. They are:
- Regional Logan
- McKay-Dee (Ogden)
- Layton
- LDS Hospital (Salt Lake)
- Intermountain Medical Center (Murray)
- Riverton
- Alta View (Sand)
- City Park
- American fork
- Utah Valley (Provo)
- Spanish fork
- Cedar
- Saint George
The 2,189 new COVID-19 cases reported on Friday include 544 cases in school-aged children – 210 aged 5 to 10; 155 who are 11-13 years old and 179 who are 14-17 years old. Vaccines are not yet available for children under 12.
To date, 3,323,167 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in Utah, a daily increase of 7,445 doses.
The seven-day moving average for positive tests is 1,511 per day, and 14,445 people have been tested for the virus and 22,946 tests performed since Thursday. This places the seven-day moving average for the percent test positivity at 9.2% when all results are included and at 12.2% when multiple tests performed by an individual are excluded.
Currently, 529 people are hospitalized in Utah with COVID-19. The state’s death toll reached 2,724 with the 21 additional deaths reported on Friday. They are:
- A man from Utah County, aged 45 to 64, not hospitalized.
- A Washington County man, over 85, a resident of a long-term care facility.
- A woman from Kane County, over 85, not hospitalized.
- A woman from Salt Lake County, aged 65 to 84, not hospitalized.
- A woman from Utah County, aged 65 to 84, not hospitalized.
- A man from Salt Lake County, aged 15 to 24, not hospitalized.
- A man from Juab County, over 85, hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Davis County woman, over 85, a resident of a long-term care facility.
- A woman from Utah County, aged 45 to 64, not hospitalized.
- A man from Sanpete County, between 25 and 44, hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Utah County man, aged 45 to 64, hospitalized at the time of his death.
- Washington County man, over 85, hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A man from Salt Lake County, aged 65 to 84, not hospitalized.
- A Davis County woman, over 85, a resident of a long-term care facility.
- A woman from Weber County, aged 45 to 64, not hospitalized.
- A Wasatch County man, aged 45 to 64, hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A Washington County man, aged 45 to 64, hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A woman from Salt Lake County, aged 65 to 84, hospitalized at the time of death.
- A man from Salt Lake County, between 25 and 44, not hospitalized.
- A man from Sanpete County, over 85, hospitalized at the time of his death.
- A woman from Salt Lake County, aged 45 to 64, hospitalized at the time of her death.
[ad_2]
Source link