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A prominent Utah doctor on Friday repeated warnings that the state’s intensive care units were at full capacity and dismissed accusations that those alarms would be exceeded.
“There are really no other numbers that are hidden. These are the facts, ”said Dr. Todd Vento, infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare. “And if these are our realities, we have to face those realities. “
1,749 more Utahns have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past day, and eight more have died from the coronavirus.
School-aged children contracted one in four of all new cases, the Utah Department of Health said – a total of 433. There have been 198 cases in children between the ages of 5 and 10; 81 cases in children aged 11 to 13; and 154 cases in children aged 14-18.
The seven-day moving average for positive tests is 1,574 per day.
According to the Utah Department of Health dashboard, 95.7% of the state’s intensive care beds were occupied as of Friday. Among the state’s referral hospitals – the large facilities that channel most cases – the figure was 97% of capacity. Anything over 85% is considered practically full.
Vento reiterated that having an intensive care bed available in a hospital does not guarantee that staff are available to care for a patient.
“This bed can sit in a room, and if I don’t have a nurse, respiratory therapist, doctor, advanced practice provider, I can’t take care of a patient. Therefore, this bed is worthless, ”Vento said Friday during Intermountain’s weekly COVID-19 briefing on Facebook Live. “That patient who goes on that bed might as well be on the floor in the living room of his house, because no one is going to take care of them.”
The health care system is overloaded, Vento said, after more than 18 months of battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are losing healthcare workers because we are tired, demoralized, tired of doing the same thing for 18-20 months – and asking, begging and begging for the same help from the community to try to help,” said Vento.
At an interim Utah legislature meeting on Wednesday, Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, accused Intermountain of exaggerating its critical care capacity issues.
“IHC says they’re out of space. They have no shortage of space. They no longer have employees. They chased away their doctors. They chased away their nurses. They made hell for their employees, ”Ray said. “They found themselves caught in the middle of a pandemic trying to change their business model to increase their bottom line by a billion dollars so they could make more money. They got caught with their pants down.
A spokesperson for Intermountain called Ray’s comments “not accurate” and noted that healthcare systems in Utah and across the country have been affected by the pandemic and the continued increase in cases caused by the delta variant.
Without mentioning Ray by name, Vento said criticism from healthcare workers “isn’t part of the solution, it’s part of the problem.”
Vento asked the Utahns to step into the shoes of an intensive care nurse. “You do seven shifts in a row,” Vento said. “Then someone says ‘Hey, can you cover this shift because someone else is away?’ or “someone else had to quit because they were very stressed about taking care of COVID.” And then you come home, and you have someone on the news – or your neighbor – say, “Oh, those numbers aren’t right. You are not really overwhelmed. You can imagine how demoralizing it is.
Last week, Intermountain President and CEO Dr Marc Harrison announced that the hospital system would postpone “urgent … but not fatal” surgeries at 13 of its hospitals – because, like Vento’s said Friday, “It would be dangerous for us to do this surgery if we can’t get the person back in intensive care.” “
The postponements began on Wednesday and in three days Intermountain delayed or rescheduled about 130 surgeries, Vento said. In the meantime, health workers are trying to compensate with telehealth sessions, remote monitoring of patients, home visits by nurses and other means of “doing hospital care at home,” he said. declared.
“The goal would be to try and do it maybe for a few weeks and see where we are at,” Vento said.
Vento, who served in the US military for 26 years, compared battling the COVID-19 pandemic to being in a combat zone.
“Our enemy as humans is the COVID virus. It is our only enemy. There are no more enemies, ”said Vento. “In a combat zone, if someone shoots you, you know you have to retaliate. We must shoot COVID. We can’t shoot each other.
Vento called on “leaders, individuals in the community, all citizens” to continue to fight the virus.
“We need everyone’s help,” he said.
In the past four weeks, unvaccinated Utahns were 5.3 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those vaccinated, according to an analysis from the state’s health department. The unvaccinated were also 6.8 times more likely to be hospitalized and 6.2 times more likely to test positive for the coronavirus.
An additional 3,573 Utahns were fully immunized in the past day, bringing the total to 1,642,717, or just over 50% of Utah’s total population.
Vaccine doses administered during the last day / total doses administered • 6,422 / 3,372,714.
Fully vaccinated Utahns • 1 642 717.
Cases reported in the last day • 1749.
Deaths reported in the past day • Eight.
There have been two deaths in Washington County – a man aged 25 to 44 and a man aged 65 to 84.
A Salt Lake County resident has died – a woman aged 85 and over. The other fatalities were a male from Box Elder County 45-64; a woman from Iron County 65-84; a man from Uintah County 45-64; a man from Utah County 45-64; and a woman from Wasatch County aged 15 to 24.
Tests reported the day before • 12,033 people were tested for the first time. A total of 20,637 people were tested.
Hospitalizations reported in the last day • 592. This is 10 more than what was reported on Thursday. Of those currently hospitalized, 225 are in intensive care, the same number reported on Thursday.
Percentage of positive tests • According to the original state method, the rate is 14.5% in the last day. This is more than the seven-day average of 13.7%.
The state’s new method counts all test results, including repeat testing of the same individual. Thursday’s rate was 8.5%, below the seven-day average of 10.1%.
[Read more: Utah is changing how it measures the rate of positive COVID-19 tests. Here’s what that means.]
Totals to date • 490,985 cases; 2,787 deaths; 21,308 hospitalizations; 3,338,373 people tested.
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