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There are now more people being treated in intensive care units at Utah hospitals than there are beds available, according to the Utah Department of Health – because COVID-19 cases in state remain at a plateau after peaking in early September.
“We’re still in the thick of it,” Eddie Stenehjem, infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare, said of the pandemic on Friday.
The intensive care units of all Utah hospitals have a 100.8% capacity – with 525 intensive care patients, out of 521 staffed beds, the state Department of Health reported on Friday.
In large hospitals, called “referral” hospitals, intensive care units have a capacity of 102.7%, with 453 patients treated among 441 staffed beds. This is the second highest level of daily capacity since the start of the pandemic.
The state health department has reported that 45.3% of patients in intensive care beds are hospitalized with COVID-19.
According to UDOH spokesperson Charla Haley, the level of intensive care capacity can exceed 100% when health workers are caring for more patients than usual – for example, when a nurse treats three or four patients while the hospital would typically assign two nurses per patient.
Within Intermountain Healthcare alone, Stenehjem said, the intensive care bed occupancy rate is 99% in the largest hospitals in the system and 98% in all hospitals in the system.
As a result, surgeons are delaying increasingly important procedures for non-coronavirus patients – including patients with strokes and heart disease, Stenehjem said.
“Complex vascular surgeries, heart surgeries – they need intensive care beds after their surgery,” Stenehjem said during Intermountain’s COVID-19 community briefing on Facebook Live. “Due to our capacity issues, we can no longer offer these surgeries because we cannot provide (…) the safe and effective care that these patients need after the operation. We just don’t have the space to provide that.
Stenehjem pointed out that the delayed procedures “are ‘elective’ surgeries, but they are not elective surgeries. By no means. I mean, people who have strokes because of a clot in their arteries. or who have blockages in their heart – they need these surgeries, but unfortunately we cannot offer them at this time as there is no way to take care of them.
According to the state Department of Health, an additional 2,524 Utahns were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the past day, bringing the total to 1,706,555, or 52.2% of the total population. from Utah.
Eleven other Utahns died from COVID-19 in the past day, the Department of Health said. One deceased was between 25 and 44 years old; two were between 45 and 64 years old.
The Department of Health also reported 1,637 new cases of the coronavirus on Friday, bringing the total number of cases recorded statewide since the start of the pandemic to 520,190. The seven-day moving average for positive tests is 1,424 per day.
Kindergarten to grade 12 children accounted for 362 of the new cases announced on Friday. There have been 187 reported cases in children aged 5 to 10 years; 77 cases in children aged 11 to 13; and 98 cases in children aged 14-18.
In the past four weeks, unvaccinated Utahns were 15.8 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those vaccinated, according to a Department of Health analysis. The unvaccinated were also 12.1 times more likely to be hospitalized and 6.8 times more likely to test positive for the coronavirus.
Vaccine doses administered during the last day / total doses administered • 9,282 / 3,548,335.
Fully vaccinated utahns • 1,706,555.
Cases reported in the last day • 1,637.
Deaths reported in the past day • 11.
Four of those who died were from Sanpete County: a woman and three men, all between the ages of 65 and 84.
The UDOH also reported the deaths of two men aged 45 to 64, one from Cache County and the other from Salt Lake County.
Also among the dead: A man from Utah County, 25-44 years old; a woman from Washington County, 65-84 years old; and three men aged 65 to 84 – one from Juab County, one from Uintah County and one from Weber County.
Hospitalizations reported in the last day • 572. That’s five more than what was reported on Thursday. Of those currently hospitalized, 238 are in intensive care – four more than reported on Thursday.
Percentage of positive tests • According to the original state method, the rate is 15.9% in the last day. This is higher than the seven-day average of 15.4%.
The state’s new method counts all test results, including repeat testing of the same individual. Tuesday’s rate was 8.6%, above the seven-day average of 10.2%.
[Read more: Utah is changing how it measures the rate of positive COVID-19 tests. Here’s what that means.]
Totals to date • 520,190 cases; 2,994 deaths; 22,662 hospitalizations; 3,526,903 people tested.
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