‘We’re still at the heart of the action’: Utah reports 1,637 new COVID-19 cases, 11 deaths Friday

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SALT LAKE CITY – Utah health officials reported 1,637 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, as well as 11 deaths.

School-aged children accounted for 362 of the latest cases – 187 were children aged 5 to 10, 77 were aged 11 to 13 and 98 were aged 14 to 17, according to the latest update provided by the Utah Department of Health.

The seven-day moving average of positive tests is now 1,424 per day, and the average percent positive for those tested is 15.4%.

Utah intensive care units continue to be full

The ‘COVID hub’, or major hospitals dealing with COVID-19, report 99% statewide intensive care unit occupancy, and 45% of all intensive care patients are believed to have COVID-19 . Intermountain Healthcare hospitals are at 98%. Dr Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious disease specialist at Intermountain, calls it a “high plateau” which he says will not come down for two to four weeks.

“We are still in the thick of it,” he told a virtual press conference on Friday. He added that this stretch of hospitals operating at or near 100% of their capacity is either longer or equivalent to a significant increase in COVID-19 cases last November that lasted until January.

Hospitals are still delaying elective surgeries that require intensive care beds for recovery. Stenehjem said they are leveling the load, which means that if someone enters a hospital and there are no beds available, they will be sent to another hospital; but Intermountain hospitals are unable to accept out-of-state transfer requests.

For people facing life-threatening emergencies like a heart attack or symptoms of stroke, Stenehjem stressed that they should not hesitate to go to the hospital and “we will find you care.” .

This support, however, comes at a cost.

Opening an intensive care bed for an emergency like this requires that patients who are still very ill be transferred to the medical floor, where nurses and staff are not accustomed to caring for patients who are ill at this level. It also expands the capacities of healthcare workers, who are then asked to take on more and more patients during their shifts, which helps increase the pressure on an already overworked and exhausted staff, he said. he declares.

This forces doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers to continue to treat patients whose illnesses and deaths are likely preventable on a daily basis, not to mention having the same conversations with these patients and their families every day, explained. Stenehjem.

“Our caregivers are getting very good at treating COVID patients, really getting used to it, but it’s really sad,” he said.

While some states have also seen a rapid influx of delta variant cases, other states, such as Florida and Alabama, have also seen a rapid decline in cases, which is not currently happening in Utah. Stenehjem attributes this, in part, to the fact that those other states experienced delta variant surges over the summer and that of Utah hit just as the kids were heading back to school.

However, he does not predict that the winter months and the holiday season will result in an increase in COVID-19 as large as last year, as more than 50% of Utah residents are vaccinated and are no longer at high risk, and people who have recently contracted COVID-19 have some degree of natural immunity.

“That being said, I said this over the summer and look at where we are at,” Stenehjem said, adding that he didn’t expect COVID-19 to go away this winter or even the next year. Additionally, with people not masking or straying as much and traveling more than last year, hospitals are seeing more and more cases of other respiratory viruses like RSV, especially in children. .

He advised those interested in booster doses to “prepare” as there is more information to come, as the science is always evolving. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will review the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson booster vaccines later this month, but there is already some evidence that the booster works and is safe.

Latest data from Utah

Health workers have administered an additional 9,282 doses of the vaccine since Thursday’s report, bringing the total doses administered in the state to 3,548,335.

The state health department has announced changes to the way it calculates risk ratios for unvaccinated residents on the statewide COVID-19 dashboard. The ministry is now reporting age-adjusted risk ratios.

“This is an important update that more accurately reflects the risk to the general population. The change will result in higher risk ratios for unvaccinated people of being hospitalized and dying. Indeed, the previous method, which did not adjust for age, skewed the data on older people who are more likely to be both vaccinated and hospitalized or to die from COVID-19 than younger people. . By adjusting the age, we better reflect the actual risk for all Utahns, ”department officials said in a statement.

According to new age-adjusted data, in the past 28 days, unvaccinated residents faced 15.8 times the risk of dying from the coronavirus, 12.1 times the risk of being hospitalized and 6.8 times more likely to test positive.

Since February 1, the unvaccinated have seen 9.8 times the risk of dying from COVID-19, 7.8 times the risk of being hospitalized from COVID-19, and 4.1 times the risk of test positive for COVID-19 than those vaccinated, the state health department said.

State health officials and doctors have noted that receiving the vaccine does not mean someone will not contract the coronavirus, but in most cases, it protects against serious illness. The vaccine also does not cause a person to contract COVID-19.

There have been 2,994 COVID-19 deaths in total in Utah during the pandemic.

As of Friday, 572 patients were receiving treatment for the disease in Utah hospitals, an increase of five since Thursday.

The latest deaths include:

• A 45- to 64-year-old Cache County man who was hospitalized when he died.
• A man from Juab County, 65-84, hospitalized.
• Three men from Sanpete County, 65-84, all hospitalized.
• A woman from Sanpete County, 65-84, hospitalized.
• A Salt Lake County man, 45-64, hospitalized.
• A man from Uintah County, 65-84, hospitalized.
• A Utah County man, 25-44, hospitalized.
• Washington County woman, 65-84, hospitalized.
• A man from Weber County, 65-84, a resident of a long-term care facility.