Intermountain doctor says vax rate, immunity will add up to a better winter for Utahns

In a virtual news conference with local media, an Intermountain Healthcare infectious disease doctor said that despite the high daily COVID-19 case numbers and packed hospitals, he thinks this will be a better winter in Utah for the pandemic. Dr. Eddie Stenehjem cited vaccination rates and natural immunity as his reasons for optimism.

Stenehjem pointed to the state’s current high plateau of cases and the virtually full hospitals throughout the state as the daily average of reported cases hovered around 1,400.

“We’re not seeing that rapid drop-off that we had hoped to see,” he said.

But Utah healthcare leaders hope to see a “continued slow decline” of cases in the next month to six weeks. An optimistic sign is the number of patients going into clinics and hospitals with COVID-like illnesses are starting to abate, Stenehjem said, which means cases could start falling soon.

“But right now. I think we’re in a period of stability where our hospitals are completely full, our ICUs are at max capacity, and we’re still seeing very significant numbers of cases of COVID throughout our hospitals,” Stenehjem said.