Intermountain Healthcare ICUs back at over 100% capacity

“The vaccines are still very effective, but not perfect. The more individuals in the community who are vaccinated, and with this high community transmission, we are going to see breakthrough infections," said Dr. Brandon Webb, an Infectious Diseases Physician at Intermountain Healthcare. Photo: Intermountain Healthcare

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) announced 1,286 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, along with eight deaths. School-aged children made up 250 of the Friday case count.

“In the last 28 days, people who are unvaccinated are at 5 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19, 6.2 times greater risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19, and 4.9 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 than vaccinated people,” wrote UDOH.

“Since February 1, 2021, people who are unvaccinated are at 6.1 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19, 5.6 times greater risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19, and 4.9 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 than vaccinated people.

Also on Friday, Dr. Brandon Webb, an Infectious Diseases Physician at Intermountain Healthcare said ICU capacity at their hospitals is over 100 percent. He said hospitals start to feel stretched when that number goes over 80.

“We’re seeing a couple of trends, the first is that our colleagues at Primary Children’s are seeing far more admissions for COVID during this phase, the Delta phase than we previously saw during other phases of the pandemic. That’s concerning,” said Webb.

“We’re also noticing that there is a trend in the admissions for COVID patients on the adult side as well, there has been a decrease in the average age, and the patients who tend to be admitted, although they’re younger do have some health conditions like obesity, high blood pressure, and other conditions like that.

“We are seeing some cases that are surprising, people who appear otherwise healthy and get severe COVID.

“That’s not the most common scenario, it is happening and when it is it’s another reminder that Delta is different, Delta is simply a different disease in some ways than the previous variants.”