Intermountain Health hospitals and clinics no longer require visitors and patients to wear face masks, ending a nearly three-year policy enacted during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Utah’s largest hospital system announced it would end the policy earlier this month, and the mask requirement officially lifted Wednesday, spokesman Jess Gomez said.
Gomez said patients and visitors who want to wear a mask at Intermountain facilities can still do so. Hospital officials ended the policy based on the low number of COVID-19 cases recently, as well as warmer weather, signaling the end of respiratory infection season.
University of Utah Health facilities still require masking, according to the health care system’s website.
Earlier this year, hospitals were slammed with a so-called triple-demic of RSV, COVID-19 and flu-like illnesses, but the most recent state health data, shared March 16, shows decreasing COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations.
Most counties are still showing “low” community COVID-19 transmission levels, based on a current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of positive case counts. Two counties — Piute and San Juan — have “medium” transmission levels.
Understand the latest Utah COVID-19 trends with these graphs from The Salt Lake Tribune, based on the latest state data:
Current sewage data shows elevated amounts of coronavirus in 12 of the 34 sites across the state as of March 16, according to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
Out of the state’s 34 sites, 20 reported enough of the virus that they are on “watch” status, meaning there’s a possibility that those sites could see elevated levels soon.
Overall, wastewater trend analyses indicate the amount of COVID-19 has plateaued at 22 sites. Ten sites reported decreasing trends of the virus, while two sites reported increasing trends.
Breakdown of updated COVID-19 metrics in Utah, as of March 16:
Vaccine doses administered in the past week/total doses administered • 3,367 / 5,916,301.
Number of Utahns fully vaccinated • 2,080,532 people — or about 64% of Utah’s total population — have received both doses of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine series, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Another 482,659 Utahns have received a bivalent booster dose after completing a primary vaccine series — or 14.9% of the population.
Cases reported in the past week • 1,313.
Average cases per day reported in the past week • 187.
Deaths reported in the past week • 11.
Salt Lake County reported the most deaths with six, a man age 65-84 and two men and three women ages 85 or older.
Washington County reported two deaths, a woman age 65-84 and a man age 85 or older.
Weber, Davis and Wasatch counties each reported one death — a man age 65 to 84 and two men ages 85 or older, respectively.
Hospitalizations reported this week • The seven-day average for people hospitalized with COVID-19 decreased from 92 to 90. The seven-day average for new hospital admissions decreased about 14% to 15.
Percentage of positive tests • Counting all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual, 13.15% of the tests conducted came back positive, compared with 13.2% at this point last week.
When repeated tests on the same individual are not counted, 16.92% of the tests administered yielded positive results, down from 17.01% the previous week.
Totals to date • 1,091,659 cases; 5,309 deaths; 42,388 hospitalizations.
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