MURRAY – If coronavirus variants now spreading across the United States become dominant strains, health experts fear the potential for a sudden spike in the spring.
That is why the speed of the vaccination campaign and measures to protect public health are so important.
On January 15, the Utah Department of Health confirmed the first case of variant B.1.1.7 COVID-19 in Utah, referred to as the “UK variant”, through continuous genetic sequencing of positive COVID-19 samples .
According to Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious physician at Intermountain Healthcare, Utahns need to maintain personal protection measures until the vaccine has an impact.
“From an epidemiological point of view, we are going in the right direction and we need to make sure that we continue to do what we are doing,” said Stenehjem.
While critical figures for Utah’s COVID-19 are currently going in the right direction, Stenehjem said the variants could change that.
“It is definitely our concern to monitor the current situation with viral variants,” he said. “It just emphasizes the fact that we need to distribute vaccines because it appears that vaccines protect against these variants.”
It is a race to distribute vaccines faster than the variants can spread.
We are on the right track now, as long as people continue to mask themselves, limit their contacts and not get together in large groups.
–Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare
An updated forecast from COVID-19 at the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Assessment, which includes highly transmissible variants, shows the potential for an additional 25,000 deaths in the next three months. The researchers project a total of more than 160,000 deaths before May 1.
The UK strain has already been detected in 33 states, including Utah.
“If it were a prevalent mode of infection here in Utah, I think we would know about it at this point because of the amount of sequencing,” said Stenehjem.
While state health officials continue to monitor strains, Stenehjem said that we need to continue protecting ourselves.
“We are on the right track now, as long as people continue to mask themselves, limit their contacts and not get together in large groups,” he said.
If Utah can distribute vaccines quickly, he said, and protect our communities more, we may be less concerned about variant strains.
Related Links
Related stories
Jed Boal