Executive director of the Salt Lake County Health Department Dr. Angela Dunn told county commissioners Tuesday she’s expecting a child to be hospitalized every other day during the upcoming school year unless serious measures are put into place to prevent COVID-19 transmission in schools.Dunn says it’s a “layered approach that needs to happen” and that masks should be part of the approach, especially for kids who can’t yet get vaccinated. While Dunn acknowledges that children generally fare better than adults when infected with COVID-19, she says letting the virus run through schools and communities will have severe consequences.
Dunn says Salt Lake County’s hospitals are already at capacity or over capacity and there is only one hospital, Primary Children’s Hospital, that can provide high-level care for children. She says we are up against possibly rationing care for children if it gets to a point where there are too many infections and too few beds.
