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Gov. Herbert warns Utah hospitals starting to fill up and 'should cause us all alarm;' 1543 new cases Thursday - Salt Lake Tribune
Oct 22, 2020 2 mins, 41 secs
Gary Herbert warned that as the state experiences record-high coronavirus hospitalizations and case counts continue to climb, the health care system is at or near capacity.

Angela Dunn said the state’s health care providers are exhausted, the public health system is strained and Utahns are afraid.

It’s been more than a week since the governor declared Utah’s ongoing surge of coronavirus cases “unacceptable” and announced a new strategy for imposing local restrictions across the state.

Utah’s intensive care units have been 72.2% occupied for the past week, but the figure reflects statewide ICU capacity and does not account for different needs from city to city, or for certain medical specialties.

Health officials have said a low rate of positive test results — 3% or so — indicates that most infected people are getting tested, and health professionals have a good idea of the scale of the outbreak.

But for the past week, 15.5% of Utah’s tests came back positive — a record high, and a clue that true infection rates are worse than the known case numbers suggest.

Positivity rates rose during the past week in 23 of Utah’s 29 counties — some precipitously — which suggests the virus is likely spreading under the radar in a lot of different communities.

Fifteen of Utah’s counties rose to the highest coronavirus restriction levels on Thursday, with 21 of the state’s 29 counties now deemed to have “high” transmission levels under new state guidelines.

But even as more counties fall under Utah’s highest restrictions, the state’s standard for “high” transmission levels are lower than other analyses.

According to the state divisions that officials use to examine health trends at the community level, all 98 of Utah’s “small areas” except Cedar City reported case rates that high.

For the past week, the state has averaged 1,289 new positive test results a day — a record high, the Utah Department of Health reported.

Weeklong case gains reached record highs Thursday in Salt Lake County as well as the Weber-Morgan health district and the Tri-County area of eastern Utah.

Wasatch County reported more hospitalizations per capita than any other part of the state, with record high hospital admissions there as well as Salt Lake, Weber and Morgan counties.

While most Utahns seem to understand the severity of the coronavirus, Herbert said "some folks aren’t taking it seriously, aren’t doing everything they can to protect themselves.” Wearing a mask is an easy precaution that doesn’t hurt the economy, the governor continued, and he and other health officials sounded frustrated that some are rebelling against such a simple tactic for keeping the disease in check

Despite the grim warnings from Herbert and health experts Thursday, the governor said people should continue to shop, work and even go trick-or-treating on Halloween, as long as they’re being responsible

Taylor Randall, the head of Herbert’s team guiding Utah’s economic recovery from COVID-19, said Thursday that officials “are trying desperately to avoid any potential shutdown of businesses,” as new unemployment data was released

Utah’s unemployment levels jumped up in September, but Randall said the rise to 5% was a sign of more residents seeking jobs, boosting labor participation as several government benefit programs come close to expiring

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