Southern Utah facing Omicron surge, long lines for testing

ST. GEORGE — Last Monday, demand for COVID-19 tests at the Tech Ridge testing site in St. George was so high that the provider, Nomi Health, couldn’t keep up. Police had to come and help close down the site for the day.

People reported waiting two or more hours in line to get swabbed. Today, Utah is reporting 12,564 new Covid cases, 18 deaths, and a 58% test positivity rate. Utah is also reporting 715 hospitalized and referral ICUs 92.1% full.

The last week has seen day after day of record-breaking case amounts, and the high infectiousness of the Omicron variant is to blame.

While many vaccinated people have been infected with Omicron, the vaccine still seems to be effective at preventing serious illness and hospitalization. Dr. Todd Vento, infectious disease expert with Intermountain Healthcare says most of the hospitalized patients are unvaccinated.

“It’s preventable in terms of the severity of hospitalization, sickness, illness and death,” said Vento. “We’re trying to ride out this wave of Omicron.”

Vento said that getting vaccinated and boosted will reduce your likelihood of getting really sick with Omicron, needing to go to the hospital, or dying from the disease. It also reduces the overall strain on Utah’s hospitals by keeping more beds available for patients in need.

More information about vaccines and Covid-19 can be found at health.utah.gov.