Deseret News
2,892 new COVID-19 cases in Utah, 9 more deaths reported day before Christmas
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Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY Utah’s rural hospitals are now vaccinating against COVID-19 with facilities in Heber City and Park City announcing front-line workers receiving injections this week.
The Utah Department of Health said Thursday that 14,822 vaccines have been administered in the Beehive State. The news comes as the number of positive COVID-19 tests continues to climb, with the agency reporting 2,892 new cases on Thursday, bringing the state s overall number of infections to 260,589 since the pandemic arrived.
Another nine Utahns have died of the novel coronavirus, putting the state’s death toll at 1,204. One previous death has been removed from the total and is under further investigation, the health department said in its news release.
Courtesy of Intermountain Healthcare
Christmas came early to some Park City Hospital staffers who began receiving the COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday afternoon.
The small hospital employs approximately 500 people, according to a spokesperson, and officials plan to make vaccinations available for all of them in the coming days.
“There’s a palpable celebratory feeling in the room,” spokesperson Holly Nelson wrote in an email to The Park record. “The COVID-19 vaccine is not mandatory for caregivers, but all will be offered the vaccine.”
Courtney Morrison receives the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday. An Intermountain Healthcare official said Park City Hospital and Heber Valley Hospital were the first two rural hospitals to receive doses of the vaccine in Utah.
Listen to this report as it aired on KPCW, 91.7
Intermountain’s Heber Valley Hospital and Heber Valley Clinic now have a larger capacity for patients and surgeries after a completed expansion.
The hospital is now a third larger and bed capacity has been increased by 16%. The project added healthcare services and upgraded medical equipment capabilities.
One of the upgrades allows for telehealth in the facility. Si Hutt, an administrator at the hospital said all of the inpatient rooms now have monitors. Before, he said, patients would have to drive down to Salt Lake City for certain specialized services.
We are able to keep some of those patients locally and just consult that specialist in, Hutt said. We have that available for infectious disease, wound care, oncology and nephrology as well. And then we also provide that service in the emergency department.