Logan doctor concerned about state’s rising COVID hospitalizations

FILE PHOTO: Masked doctor checks test results. Photo by Irwan iwe on Unsplash

During an Intermountain Healthcare virtual news conference Monday a Logan physician talked about the growing number of COVID patients hospitalized in Utah.

We have high volumes of patients in the hospital and we’re really nervous about our COVID numbers rising because we remember what it was like when it was really bad,” said Dr. Taki May, Logan Regional Hospital medical director. “I fear that we are heading there again.”

She said she expects an increase in “breakthrough” cases, which happen when someone fully vaccinated contracts coronavirus two weeks or more after the final dose, primarily because the virus mutates and more variants emerge.

Utah Health Department data indicates there have been over 3,500 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 in Utah, resulting in 256 hospitalizations and 10 deaths.

Tuesday’s report from the state included 613 new coronavirus cases in Utah which is 40 cases fewer than the current seven-day average for positive tests.

The state health department said of the 429,300 total positive cases in Utah the last 16 months about 8,400 of them has been identified as being caused by one of the latter developing variants. There have been 3,424 Delta variant cases in Utah.

As of Tuesday 338 people are hospitalized with the virus across the state and of those 150 are in intensive care. To date 18,426 Utahns have been hospitalized with the virus, including 994 in the Bear River Health District.

The Tuesday report leaves the rolling seven-day average in Utah at 653 a day.

The state’s rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of “people over people” grew from 14.6 percent to 14.7 percent Tuesday while the rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of “tests over tests,” 10.2 percent.

There were seven new COVID deaths reported Tuesday statewide and there have been 2,441 total deaths in Utah since the start of the pandemic including 114 in Cache, Box Elder and Rich counties.

The Bear River Health Department (BRHD) reported 24 new cases in the district since Monday. A total of 22,922 residents of Cache, Box Elder and Rich Counties have contracted the virus while 22,437 have been described as “recovered.”

Idaho’s Tuesday report indicates 2,188 Idahoans have lost their lives to the virus. The state’s total is now 198,840 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Case counts in the three counties in southeast Idaho include 1,253 positive cases in Franklin County, 417 in Bear Lake County and 375 in Oneida County.

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2 Comments

  • Free Bird July 27, 2021 at 6:49 pm Reply

    She said she expects an increase in “breakthrough” cases, which happen when someone fully vaccinated contracts coronavirus two weeks or more after the final dose, primarily because the virus mutates and more variants emerge.

    Sounds like a selling point to me, to get the jab! 😉

  • voter July 28, 2021 at 3:51 pm Reply

    Yes, because it decreases your chances of being hospitalized, or even dying. Get the jab!

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