Utah is currently a good spot in the fight against COVID-19, an Infm disease doctor at Intermountain Healthcare said Friday when the Utah Department of Health added 422 new COVID-19 cases and six additional deaths as due to the virus reported.
“This is a time to be optimistic,” said Dr. Eddie Stenehjem told reporters during a virtual news conference by the region’s largest healthcare provider. According to Stenehjem, although there are still many sick patients who are hospitalized with the deadly virus, the number of cases, positive tests, hospitalizations and deaths is decreasing.
At the same time, the doctor said that more and more Utahns are being vaccinated against COVID-19.
As of Friday, a total of 1,450,263 doses of vaccines had been administered to Utahns, a daily increase of 40,049, the Department of Health reported. Nearly 522,000 Utahns have now been fully vaccinated, meaning it has been at least two weeks since their final dose.
“This is a great place for us to be here, here in Utah,” Stenehjem said as the number of cases in about 30 states, including Michigan, accelerates. “We are by no means out of the woods, but man, we are in a much better place now than we were three months ago.”
Although activities during the spring break could cause a new surge of COVID-19 if revealers do not wear masks and take social distance, especially as more contagious variants of the virus continue to emerge in the country, he says that an increase in cases is quite different can look like after the winter holidays.
About 80% of Utahns 70 or older were vaccinated, the doctor said, “Although we are seeing this increase, we can see it being blunted in terms of hospitalizations and deaths,” the doctor said. In addition to protecting the vulnerable population, he said that warmer weather means people are spending more time on it, where the distribution is reduced.
Yet Stenehjem warned: “Let us not be vigilant.” He said there was “quite a bit” of the virus spreading in Utah, so the same recommendations for public health, including wearing masks, even after the nationwide mandate ends on April 10, still apply. “It’s not gone.”
Even children who play outside should wear masks, Stenehjem said if they are close to others and the air is quiet. Utah’s first child death from the virus, reported in March, was a Salt Lake County boy between the ages of 1 and 14 who was hospitalized at the time of his death.
As vaccinations increase, the doctor said, Utah “could probably have a little more relaxed public health measures when we enter the summer.” He said he and his family would continue to wear masks until science “says it’s safe” to give up protection against the spread of the virus.
The new law ending the mandate on April 10 also removes other restrictions once the state receives 1.63 million first vaccine doses, if the number of cases and hospitalization remain low. It is expected to be mid-May, although the requirements for the K-12 mask will remain until June.
The latest number of cases brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Utah to 386,550 since the onset of the pandemic more than a year ago. The department’s data shows that the running average of seven days for positive tests is now 407 per day, with another 5,761 Utahns taking COVID-19 tests and another 14,258 tests done since Thursday.
More than 2.4 million Utahns have taken just under 4.3 million tests, and the seven-day moving average for test positivity is 3.4% when all results are included, the method the state uses to measure transmission levels and 6.9% when multiple test results of an individual in the last 90 days have been excluded.
Currently, 138 are hospitalized in Utah with COVID-19 increasing the total number of hospitalizations in the state to 15,573.
Utah’s death toll from the coronavirus is 2131, with six deaths reported Friday. The deaths, including four that occurred before March 1, are:
• A Davis County woman, aged between 65 and 84, resident for long-term care.
A Salt Lake County man, aged between 65 and 84, was admitted to the hospital.
A Millard County woman, aged between 65 and 84, was admitted to hospital.
• A Weber County man, over 85, resident for long-term care.
• A Salt Lake County woman, aged between 65 and 84, was admitted to the hospital.
• a woman in Utah County, over the age of 85, resident for long-term care.