State health officials and healthcare workers across the state have seen a recent surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations over the past week.The vast majority of the recent cases appear to be coming from individuals who are not vaccinated. Utah Department of Health spokesperson Tom Hudachko says only a “minuscule amount of individuals who have been vaccinated go on to test positive for COVID-19.” According to the data, of the 1.4 million vaccinated Utahns, only 1,500 of those have tested positive for the virus.
Intermountain Healthcare spokesperson Dr. Todd Vento says we should all remember how well masks work at preventing the spread of the virus. However, according to Hudachko, the wrong group of people are the ones primarily masking up. He says a lot of the data shows that “people who are still most likely wearing masks are vaccinated individuals, which is the exact opposite of what we need to be having right now.”
Hudachko says there’s never been a more convenient time to get vaccinated, especially because we know “that these vaccines are absolutely effective in limiting the transmission of this disease.”
