Utah’ COVID-19 numbers and hospitalizations still high

Utah – It looks like summer’s COVID-19 surge has trended downward for many hospitals across the United States, but that’s not the case in Utah.

For the first time in a couple of months, the new cases and hospitalizations in the country dropping below 100,000.

According to University of Utah Hospital associate chief medical officer Dr. Kencee Graves, while cases across the country are trending down, she hasn’t seen that happen in every state. “We still have a large unvaccinated population. We could see a lot of people get very sick. So I think it’s too soon to tell where we’re really headed,” she said.

Since mid-September, the latest numbers show that COVID-19 deaths dropping roughly 15%.

New COVID-19 cases over the past three weeks showed a 40% decline nationally.

According to Dr. Graves, hospitalizations at the University of Utah Health are not on the decline yet. “Our hospitalization rate at the university has been generally stable within a range, but that is a really high range. It’s not a place we want to live or it’s really very safe to live,” she said.

Dr. Graves added that she’s not going to get hopeful until she sees numbers decreasing significantly over a period of time.

According to Dr. Graves, it’s going to be a while before numbers decrease dramatically in Utah until more people help in slowing the transmission of COVID-19 by getting vaccinated and masking up. “The university, as well as our other medical centers, are making choices that mean we need to be able to protect our ability to take care of patients,” she said.