Health

A Salt Lake County mask mandate was issued Friday by Health Executive Director Dr. Angela Dunn. The mandate took effect at midnight and will be in place for thirty days, ending at 5 p.m. on Feb. 7. It requires masks in all indoor public spaces.

Utah public health officials addressed the spiking Omicron surge and record number of COVID cases in Utah Thursday.

An Intermountain Healthcare doctor said the omicron covid-19 variant will become the dominant strain in Utah by 2022.

In his last monthly news conference of 2021, Governor Cox addressed water infrastructure improvements, school violence intervention and urged Utahns to get vaccinated before the holidays.

The omicron variant of COVID-19 has been detected in Utah, but little is known about how this variant is different from the others.

The Utah Department of Health on Wednesday reported 15 more people have died from COVID-19. One of the deaths was a boy between the ages of 1 - 14, according to the department.

Utah doctors have added the flu to an increasing list of ailments Utahns could experience this winter.

As the COVID-19 vaccine became available to younger populations in the US, pediatricians including Doctor Dongngan Truong with University of Utah Health, started to notice cases of myocarditis, which is essentially inflammation of the heart.

Omicron cases are showing up across the country. With the holiday season approaching, concern is rising on the spread and severity of this new COVID-19 variant.

The UPR special “LOL” fights back with laughter clubs, laughter experts and someone in one of life’s saddest jobs who laughs plenty (we will tell you the job, but not an exact amount for “plenty”).