State’s first COVID-19 patient reflects on 1 year since hospitalization

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SALT LAKE CITY – A year ago on Sunday, Utah received its first patient with COVID-19.

Mark Jorgensen and his wife contracted the virus while on a cruise ship in Asia, along with dozens of others – before the now endemic disease reached states.

“I had no idea we would do this again a year later,” Jorgensen said on Sunday, adding that he initially expected the new strain SARS-CoV-2 to act “more like another swine flu. or avian. “

“I am very surprised that it has lasted this long,” he said.

Jorgensen, who has never exhibited symptoms, was admitted to the special high-level isolation unit at Intermountain Medical Center on February 28, 2020, after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requested the transfer from a California hospital. It had previously been quarantined while awaiting transport from Japan to the United States and California.

He spent a few days in the Murray Intermountain facility, then, still symptom-free, was transported by ambulance – and police escort – to his home in St. George to come out of quarantine for a few more weeks.

“We certainly didn’t intend to make him the guinea pig… but we had to learn,” said Dr. Todd Vento, an infectious disease specialist at Intermountain who helped treat Jorgensen. He said so much had changed in the past year.

The doctor, who had prepared and planned for the arrival of COVID-19 in Utah, said it was “surprising” to receive the call that a positive patient was on the way.

“That’s when it got real,” Vento said. Even 40 days after testing positive, Jorgensen’s tests still showed he had COVID-19, but by then all indications were that it was finally safe for him to leave his home.

Mark Jorgensen takes a selfie inside an ambulance. He contracted COVID-19 while on a cruise with his wife, Jerri, to Japan in early 2020. Mark Jorgensen was flown back to the United States directly to an Air Force base in California, before to be transferred to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray on February. , 28, 2020.

Intermountain’s biological containment unit is just one of the few units in the United States that exist in case it is necessary to isolate against certain diseases. It would not have been enough for all the patients who have since been treated for COVID-19, the doctors found.

At the time, quarantine was the only known method of stopping the spread of the disease.

“It’s a terrible thing that has happened,” Vento said, adding that COVID-19 is something that will continue to be a problem, albeit less invasive, for years to come.

“We cannot be complacent,” he said. “We knew it was a marathon. A marathon is 26 miles and we are somewhere in the middle, teens or twenties … we have to keep running and not think about the finish line. We must continue to fight the good fight. “

Utah numbers well outside the peaks

The daily number of cases in Utah had reached more than 5,000 at the peak, after being as low as a few dozen at the start. On Sunday, the seven-day average of new cases stood at 647, up from 1,425 on February 1. Vento said it appears the virus is leveling off in Utah and the States as mutated strains emerge, keeping the disease quite virulent. .

The Utah Department of Health reported 465 new cases of the disease confirmed by testing on Sunday. This brings the total number of people infected with COVID-19 to 371,235 in Utah.

In addition, six more deaths were reported in Utah on Sunday. Among them were four men and two women, including a Summit County man aged 45 to 64 who was not hospitalized at the time of his death; a Salt Lake County man aged 45 to 64 who was hospitalized; a male from Tooele County aged 45 to 64 who was not hospitalized; a Utah County man over the age of 85 who resided in a long-term care facility; a woman from Weber County aged 65 to 84 who resided in a long-term care facility; and a woman from Salt Lake County aged 65 to 84 who resided in a long-term care facility.

COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 1,935 Utah residents since the start of the pandemic.

Nationally, there have been 28.6 million cases and more than 512,000 deaths caused by COVID-19, according to CDC reports. Recently, as Vento said, new cases in the United States have settled at around 70,000 per day.

Vento said he believed COVID-19 wouldn’t be a problem after last summer … “but the virus has really shown us that it makes the schedule, and we have to adjust.”

Due to Utah’s population and demographics, Vento knew the state would not know the level of illness felt in New York or Washington state, where long-term care facilities were hit hard. .

He said Utah hospitals never met crisis standards.

Since Jorgensen arrived at the Utah hospital to be treated for COVID-19, 14,695 people have been hospitalized for the virus in hospitals statewide. On Sunday, the state’s health department reported 203 people are currently hospitalized with the disease, 20 fewer than reported on Saturday and 38 less than a week ago.

With the number of cases still falling, hospitalizations also follow the same trend in Utah. Health officials have said the death toll will respond accordingly, but this is a lagging indicator of the disease.

Utah has tested 2.2 million people for COVID-19, using a total of 3.8 million tests since March of last year.

Maximize vaccines, wear a mask, best way to contain disease

The state has fully immunized 254,569 people with two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. In total, however, the state administered 715,536 doses, including 14,243 more than reported on Saturday. At least 820,940 doses of Moderna and / or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have been delivered to Utah. Vaccination appointments fill up quickly as the state still receives doses of the vaccine on a weekly basis.

A third available vaccine, manufactured by Johnson and Johnson, was approved for widespread distribution on Saturday and will arrive in Utah shortly, officials said.

Vento said vaccines must be “maximized” as a disease containment weapon.

“We have to keep doing the things that we know work,” he said, adding that wearing masks, social distancing, limiting gatherings, etc. will help eliminate new strains of the virus. and keep infections away.

Dr Todd Vento and Dr Angela Dunn speak about their coronavirus patient treated at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray on February 28, 2020. A year later on Sunday, Vento spoke about the management of the state's first COVID-19 patient at the start of the pandemic. — Dr Todd Vento and Dr Angela Dunn speak about their coronavirus patient treated at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray on February 28, 2020. A year later on Sunday, Vento spoke about the management of the state’s first COVID-19 patient at the start of the pandemic.

COVID-19, Vento said, “is probably here to stay.”

But that shouldn’t incite fear, he said.

Jorgensen, who is eligible for the vaccination due to his age and has been transplanted, has yet to be vaccinated and said he was wary of them but would do as his doctor advises. And while he’s not symptomatic, he’s since developed medical issues, including mental fog and pinched nerves in his eye that could be the result of his COVID-19 infection early last year.

“I may not have skated as without spin as I thought,” he said. “But we both think we were lucky to get away as easily as we did.

He and his wife led normal lives and spoke to the media via Zoom from his accommodation in Costa Rica on Sunday. He does not regret having traveled to Japan when he did and said: “things are happening”.

“We had a great time with a little side adventure afterwards,” said Jorgensen. “But we’ll definitely do it again. We don’t let the fear of this stop us.

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