Catherine Jeppsen is helping her daughters on Tuesday try to collect saliva for COVID-19 testing off Mt. Millcreek Olympus Senior Center. Utah reported 1,539 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY – While Utah continues to confirm high rates of COVID-19 cases after Labor Day weekend, hospital officials say they are preparing for a potential increase in hospitals.
“We are at capacity or above capacity at all major COVID centers in the Intermountain system. Some of our major COVID hospitals are actually well above capacity and need to use creative means to maintain patient access. in the ICU, “said Dr. Brandon Webb, an infectious disease doctor at Intermountain Healthcare, said Wednesday during a news conference.
Utah on Wednesday confirmed 1,539 new cases of COVID-19 and eight new deaths. School-age children account for 362 of the new cases: 138 cases are between 5 and 10 years old, 99 between 11-13 and 125 cases between 14 and 17 years old, according to the Utah Department of Health.
The seven-day continuous average for new cases now stands at 1,362, and the positive percentage of people tested is 12.4%. On Wednesday, 483 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Utah, just one busier bed than the day before. The reference ICUs that can treat patients with more serious illnesses were 88.2% full with coronavirus and other patients, and the overall use of the ICU stands at 84.6%. People who are not ICU have a full 56.8%.
Morale and staffing remain an issue in hospitals, Webb said. Hospitals continue with the “load level,” which means transferring patients between other hospitals and even other systems to deal with capacity constraints.
Staffing is “critical” now and “we see fatigue, especially in the cases of nursing and other front-line health care providers,” Webb explained.
As the community spread of coronavirus and other seasonal illnesses continues to increase, Webb said more health workers also need to rest from work to help sick family members.
“And that’s eliminating our workforce, and unfortunately we expect that kind of stuff (those home exhibitions) to continue to impact our workforce as well,” he said.
According to what Utah has experienced throughout the post-holiday pandemic, officials anticipate an increase.
“And we’re preparing for that. I think we hope that over the next few weeks, we’ll probably see more new cases and new cases will lead to new hospitalizations,” Webb said.
But he acknowledged that it will be difficult to differentiate between the holiday hike and the continued hike back to school.
The Utah Department of Health did not release the latest vaccine totals Wednesday because those data are undergoing a quality analysis.
In the last 28 days, unvaccinated residents have had a 4.4-fold higher risk of dying from COVID-19, a 6.2-fold higher risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19, and a 5-fold risk. 4 times greater than positive for COVID-19 than vaccinated people, according to the health department. As of February 1, people who are not vaccinated have a 5.2-fold higher risk of dying from COVID-19, a 5.2-fold higher risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19, and a 4.5 times higher risk of positive COVID-19 than vaccinated. people.
Confirmed advanced cases accounted for 12,169 cases in Utah, 658 hospitalizations and 66 deaths. Cases are considered a breakthrough if the person was completely vaccinated more than two weeks ago. They have accounted for approximately 2.6% of the total number of cases in the state since the beginning of the pandemic, 3.2% of hospitalizations and 2.5% of deaths to date.
The last deaths:
- A Davis County woman over 85 who resides in a long-term care center.
- A 15- to 24-year-old Iron County girl or woman who was hospitalized when she died.
- An Iron County man, aged 65 to 84, was admitted to hospital.
- A Salt Lake County man, ages 25 to 44, was hospitalized.
- A Salt Lake County woman over the age of 85 admitted to the hospital.
- A Utah County man, aged 65 to 84, was admitted to hospital.
- Two men from Washington County, aged 65 to 84, hospitalized.