COVID-19

Utah Department of Health reported 9500 COVID-19 cases one day last week, the highest ever seen in Utah. Epidemiologists call the virus a shape-shifting illness due to the changing variants, but the recommendations remain the same.

Doctors at Park City Hospital and Heber Valley Hospital said this week that Wasatch Back residents are better off sticking close to home than going down to Salt Lake City for care during the omicron surge, because they’ve got plenty of room and healthy staff.

Cases of COVID are on the rise throughout Park City schools, and the high school has been hit particularly hard.

Sundance Institute Managing Director Betsy Wallace said Thursday the team made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person 2022 festival after extensive discussions with county officials about the current COVID surge.

The Utah Department of Health reported more new cases of COVID in the past 24 hours than the state had in the first 68 days of the pandemic in 2020 – and a growing number of deaths. A state health expert talked about what that means, and offered some advice to Summit County.

With the Omicron variant of COVID-19 continuing its rapid spread across Utah and the rest of the world, local public health officials are keeping an eye on more than just daily case counts to help gauge how to respond.

Ahead of schools coming back in session on Monday, the Summit County Health Department is monitoring the current statewide spike in COVID-19 cases, and will act if the data deems it necessary.

Utah recorded the highest statewide number of new cases since early January.

After setting records for single-day COVID-19 case counts over the Christmas weekend, Summit County broke 100 cases in a day for the first time ever Tuesday.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced Thursday that all Utahns over the age of 18 can now get booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.