MURRAY – The current increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is a sign of an increase in vacations, according to Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious disease doctor at Intermountain Healthcare.
The harm will again depend on what Utahns do to stop the spread.
“We anticipate that January will be quite tough in terms of hospitalization capacity,” Stenehjem said.
As the number of COVID-19 cases increases, he said, there is usually a delay of seven to ten days before the increase in hospitalizations, which is now happening.
The Utah Department of Health estimated that there were 53,597 active cases of COVID-19 in the state as of Thursday. The average number of positive cases per day for seven days was 2,952, while the positive daily test rate per day had increased to 32.7%.
“It’s definitely an increase from, I would say, the holidays, starting Dec. 24, going through the New Year,” Stenehjem said.
The case count, the positivity rate and now hospitalizations are rising again after the fall in mid-December.
Here we go …. holiday hike. https://t.co/8TgvlSyXcR
– Eddie Stenehjem (@E_Stenehjem) January 7, 2021
“We’re now starting to see this in hospitalizations, both in state data and in Intermountain’s internal data,” he said.
Stenehjem said this was the holiday hike they were waiting for. “If you look at the trend line, it will go up again,” he said.
Hospital patients tell doctors how they believe they contracted the virus.
“” Yes, I had a vacation meeting … A couple of days later, someone got sick, “Stenehjem said.
They expected hospitalizations to go down even further in December to make room for patients during this wave, but that didn’t happen. The hospital again exceeds the 85% threshold, which is the functional capacity of the hospital.
“Unfortunately, we anticipate that this wave will continue and we will begin to see more and more cases that will lead to more hospitalizations and, as we know, will end up causing more deaths,” Stenehjem said.
How long the increase lasts depends on how many viruses have spread over the past week and how quickly everyone returns to social distancing practices and limits meetings.
“If people go back to that, we hope to see how those numbers come down,” Stenehjem said.
With so many positive cases, the doctor said more people need to be tested to better understand what happens to the virus.
Related stories
Jed Boal