MURRAY – The current rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is a sign of the holiday season, according to Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare.
How bad it gets again depends on what Utahns do to stop the spread.
“We anticipate that January will be quite tough in terms of hospital capacity,” Stenehjem said.
As the number of COVID-19 cases increases, he said, there is usually a gap of seven to 10 days before hospitalizations increase, which is happening now.
The Utah Department of Health estimated there were 53,597 active cases of COVID-19 in the state as of Thursday. The average number of positive cases seven days a day was 2,952, while the positive daily test rate increased to 32.7%.
“Without a doubt, this is an increase from, I would say the holidays, starting with December 24, passing the New Year,” Stenehjem said.
The number of cases, the positivity rate and now hospitalizations are rising again after a decline in mid-December.
Here we are … the post-holiday wave. https://t.co/8TgvlSyXcR
– Eddie Stenehjem (@E_Stenehjem) January 7, 2021
“We are now beginning to see this in hospitalizations on both state and internal Intermountain data,” he said.
Stenehjem said that this is the growth that the holidays expected. “If you look at the trend line, it will come back,” he said.
Hospital patients tell doctors how they think they contracted the virus.
“Yes, we had a holiday meeting … A few days later, someone got sick,” Stenehjem said.
They hoped that hospitalizations would fall further in December to make room for patients during this increase, but this did not happen. The hospital again exceeds the 85% threshold, which is the functional capacity of the hospital.
“Unfortunately, we anticipate that this growth will continue and we will begin to see more and more cases that will lead to more hospitalizations and, as we know, will eventually lead to more deaths,” Stenehjem said. .
How long the growth lasts depends on how much the virus has spread in the last week and how quickly everyone is returning to social distancing practices and limited gatherings.
“If people come back to this, we anticipate that these numbers will return,” Stenehjem said.
With so many positive cases, the doctor said that more people need to be tested so that they can better understand what is happening with the virus.
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Jed Boal