Covid hospitalizations remain record-breaking in Utah

Photo: Intermountain Park City Hospital

PARK CITY, Utah — On Friday, the Utah Department of Health reported that 854 people are currently hospitalized in the state with COVID-19, which is more than at any other time during the pandemic.

Summit County recorded its first COVID-19 death this week for the first time since October. The man was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized at the time of his death.

There have been 18 hospitalizations in the county in the last 30 days, with two of those patients needing intensive care.

Meanwhile statewide, where vaccinations rates are lower when compared to Summit County, hospitalizations have consistently increased since the winter holiday ended.

Dr. Wing Province, the medical director of Park City Hospital, said in a news conference on Thursday that hospitalizations are “really the true marker of how severe this is disease is.”

”With such a limited number of tests that are available out there, it could be that people are just stopping testing. And as a result, we’re seeing a decline in cases,” Province said.

”We’re actually seeing people who are willing to pay for an ER visit just to get a Covid test, even though they really don’t have a lot of symptoms or severe disease. They’re still coming in just to get tested.”

He said that roughly 20-30% of all visits at Park City Hospital are Covid patients, and noted that many of them are not sick enough to need to be admitted.

Earlier in January, Governor Spencer Cox and other state officials urged residents that are not high risk to not get tested, ensuring that case counts are underscoring the true virus spread in the state. 6,166 new cases were announced on Friday statewide.