The increasing number of cases of COVID-19 and RSV in Utah already, combined with the burgeoning flu season, are raising the possibility that all three illnesses could surge here at once, doctors say.
Winter is coming, Dr. Andrew Pavia cautioned Wednesday — a warning Game of Thrones fans may recognize, he quipped, but all Utahns should heed as COVID-19, influenza and RSV viruses start to drive more illness.
It is unlikely masks will be widely mandated, Pavia said in a Zoom news conference, “because of the politics, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them to protect yourself.”University of Utah Health is just beginning to see a rise in COVID-19 cases from the low point a few weeks ago, and while there were no flu cases a month ago, they now are showing up in urgent care clinics.
Meanwhile, cases of RSV, a common respiratory virus that causes more serious illness in infants, toddlers and the elderly, are starting to increase rapidly in Utah. Pavia, also director of hospital epidemiology at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, also expects sub-variants of COVID-19 to fuel a surge in cases.
Pavia said he “can’t really speak to” preparations by the state health department. “There are contingency plans,” he said, “but a lot of the [coronavirus] funding has disappeared, so opening mass testing facilities is difficult without funding to do that.”Utah health care workers remain burned out or exhausted by the demands of their jobs since the beginning of 2020, Pavia said.
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