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Summit and Wasatch counties move to higher COVID-19 transmission levels this week

Centers for Disease Control

According to the CDC, both Summit and Wasatch County moved up one COVID-19 transmission level this week. Summit is now considered high and Wasatch is now medium.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moved Summit County to a high level of COVID-19 transmission this week. Wasatch County moved up to the medium transmission classification.

CDC guidelines recommend that people in a high-transmission area wear a mask in public indoor spaces, stay up to date with COVID vaccines and get tested if they have symptoms.

According to the Summit and Wasatch County health departments, case counts in both counties have remained relatively stable over the past week. Summit County has averaged 13.5 cases per day and Wasatch County has seen an average case rate of 7.7 per day. But the CDC classifies transmission levels through a combination of new cases and hospitalizations. Both counties have seen 11.6 hospitalizations per 100,000 people in the last week, according to state data.

According to Summit County Health Director Phil Bondurant, the CDC tracker does not differentiate between hospital patients who are there because of COVID and other patients who have been admitted for other reasons and test positive once at the hospital.

Bondurant maintains that hospitalizations because of COVID remain low and that local healthcare systems are equipped to handle the current situation.

Statewide data says COVID hospitalizations are up over 27% this week compared to last week.

The prevalence of COVID in wastewater has also become another relied upon indicator of the virus’ presence in a community since regular testing decreased at the end of the omicron surge. As of this week, 24 of the state’s 34 wastewater sites are experiencing elevated levels of COVID.

More information and the most current COVID data can be found here.

Sean Higgins covers all things Park City and is the Saturday Weekend Edition host at KPCW. Sean spent the first five years of his journalism career covering World Cup skiing for Ski Racing Media here in Utah and served as Senior Editor until January 2020. As Senior Editor, he managed the day-to-day news section of skiracing.com, as well as produced and hosted Ski Racing’s weekly podcast. During his tenure with Ski Racing Media, he was also a field reporter for NBC Sports, covering events in Europe.