MURRAY – Utah is facing one of the worst outbreaks of COVID-19 in the country, with the fourth highest rate of new cases, according to state health data.
A doctor at Intermountain Healthcare said Utah is still seeing the results of the holiday growth.
“We have the highest risk now of getting COVID, higher than we have ever been,” said Dr. Todd Vento, an infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare. “Therefore, we must commit to finishing this race.”
Today, the virus is as infectious in the hive state as it has ever been, Vento said, regardless of the precautions Utahns have already taken. That’s why he said we need to double up against pandemic complacency and fatigue.
“Our conclusion from this would be that it is the right time for post-holiday growth,” Vento said.
If you meet different people every day and do not wear a mask indoors in unventilated areas, he said, your risk is even higher.
With a continuous average of 3,100 new cases per day and a positivity rate of over 30%, Utah had the fourth highest new case rate in the country on Monday. The number of cases per population has almost doubled in the last 10 days.
“The next few weeks will be even more worrying, because we haven’t seen all the hospitalizations in this case increase,” Vento said.
The CDC now believes that 60% of COVID-19 transmission occurs from asymptomatic individuals.
“So, especially since it’s a problem when you think about the meeting, say a week, two weeks over the holidays, through the New Year’s holiday,” Vento said.
The doctor said we will not begin to see the positive impact of the vaccine on the number of cases in months.
“It will probably get worse in terms of numbers,” Vento said. “So, even more important is the fact that, in 2021, we will all recommend that we make the preventive public health measures that work.”
He therefore encouraged everyone to make these practices part of a New Year’s resolution.
“So if you leave the house and put on your clothes, you have to think you’re naked if you don’t have a mask.”
Masking, social distancing and limiting encounters with people who do not live in our homes are as important as ever at this time, “he said.
So, if you leave the house and put on clothes, you have to think that you are naked if you don’t have a mask.
–Dr. Todd Vento, an infectious disease doctor at Intermountain Healthcare
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Jed Boal