MURRAY – Utah is experiencing 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 boom.
“We are at greater risk now of contracting COVID than ever before,” said Dr. Todd Vento, an infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare. “So we have to commit to finishing this race.”
The virus is now more infectious than ever in the Hive State, Vento said, regardless of the care the Utahns are already taking. That’s why he said that we need to bend against complacency and fatigue from the pandemic.
“Our conclusion would be that this is the right time for a sudden post-holiday increase,” said Vento.
If you meet different people every day and don’t wear a mask indoors, in areas without ventilation, he said, the risk is even greater.
With a continuous average of 3,100 new cases per day and a positivity rate above 30%, Utah had the country’s fourth highest rate of new cases on Monday. The number of cases per population has almost doubled in the past 10 days.
“The coming weeks will be even more worrying because we haven’t seen all the hospitalizations from this increase in cases,” said Vento.
The CDC now believes that 60% of COVID-19 transmission is occurring in people without symptoms.
“It is even more of a problem when you think about bringing together, say, more than a week, two weeks during the holidays, until the New Year holidays,” said Vento.
The doctor said that we will not begin to see the positive impact of the vaccine on our case numbers for months.
“It will probably get worse in terms of numbers,” said Vento. “So it is even more important that everyone commits again in 2021 to the preventive public health measures that work.”
Therefore, he encouraged everyone to make these practices part of a New Year’s resolution.
“So, if you’re leaving the house, and you’re getting dressed, you have to think you’re naked if you’re not wearing a mask.”
Masking, social distance and limiting encounters with people who do not live in our homes are as important as ever now, “he said.
So, if you’re leaving the house and you’re dressing, you have to think you’re naked if you’re not wearing a mask.
–Dr. Todd Vento, infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare
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Jed Boal