MURRAY – As coronavirus variants now spreading across the United States become dominant strains, health experts fear the possibility of a spring surge.
That is why the speed of the vaccination campaign and public health protection measures are so important.
On January 15, the Utah Department of Health confirmed the first case of the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant in Utah, called the ‘UK variant’, by continuous genetic sequencing of positive COVID-19 samples .
According to Dr Eddie Stenehjem, a physician at Infectious Disease at Intermountain Healthcare, Utahns must maintain personal protective measures until the vaccine has an impact.
“From an epidemiological point of view, we are moving in the right direction, and we need to make sure we keep doing what we are doing,” Stenehjem said.
While Utah’s critical COVID-19 numbers are currently heading in the right direction, Stenehjem said the variants could change that.
“It is definitely our concern to really monitor this current situation with the viral variants,” he said. “It just underscores the fact that we have to take out vaccinations because the vaccines seem to protect against these variants.”
It’s a race to get the vaccines out faster than the variants can disperse.
We are currently on a good track, as long as people keep masking, limiting their contacts and not meeting in large groups.
-Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, Doctor of Infectious Diseases at Intermountain Healthcare
An updated COVID-19 forecast from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which includes the highly transferable variants, shows the potential for an additional 25,000 deaths over the next three months. Researchers are projecting a total of 160,000 deaths before May 1.
The British tribe has now been located in 33 states, including Utah.
“If it was a predominant way of infection here in Utah, I would think we would know about it at this point because of the amount they order,” Stenehjem said.
While state health officials continue to detect the tension, Stenehjem said we need to continue to protect ourselves.
“We are currently on a good track, as long as people keep masking, limiting their contacts and not meeting in large groups,” he said.
If Utah can get vaccinated quickly, he said, and protect more of our communities, then we can worry less about the different tribes.
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Jed Boal