Like most places this time of year, public health leaders foresee increases in common illnesses in Summit County. Over the past five years, COVID, RSV and the flu followed that seasonal trend with local surges in cases, according to the county health department’s new online dashboard.
Summit County Health Director Phil Bondurant said it’s for residents to easily see the trends and compare for themselves.
“[You can] see those colored overlays to see if we're trending up or trending down,” he said. “Are weeks consistent with what we've seen in previous years? And then under those tabs, you can click and get a few more details about cases by the week or by the day.”
He said data on COVID cases may look confusing. That’s largely because people don’t report their cases as often as they did in the first two years of COVID’s existence.
The general public is not required to tell the health department when they have COVID, but Bondurant said it helps follow the trends when they do. That’s the reason for another new webpage where people can self-report.
“So we have set up a voluntary reporting portal where you can report your at-home test if you feel the need to do so,” Bondurant said. “And what that does is just gives us another evidence point to kind of assess what's going on in the community and have a better understanding of exactly what COVID is doing.”
As for RSV, Bondurant said the virus surged in 2022 and 2023, compared to what’s typical.
“It's definitely that time of year,” he said. “Last year, we had a very similar conversation about RSV, not only in Summit County, but in the state of Utah. And we are in RSV season. As we learned last year, in addition to those newborns and young children, it affects adults as well. And we saw that, which was kind of a surprise to us. This year, we were better prepared with the vaccine that has been available. But now as we've learned, the RSV vaccine has become a limited commodity, and is being rationed per se, based on individual existing conditions and risk factors.”
More information about COVID, RSV and influenza and vaccines that protect against them is available at summitcountyhealth.org.
