The federal COVID-19 Public Health Service Act officially expires May 11. With the end of the emergency order, we’ll archive this newsletter, and our social media profiles (@UtahCoronavirus).

Thank you for doing your part to stay safe and healthy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic! We’d also like to thank the Utah Department of Health and Human Services (Utah DHHS) and our colleagues in healthcare for their tireless efforts to keep Utahns informed.

Keep up with health news by subscribing to the Utah DHHS newsletter. Follow @UtahDHHS on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Utah DHHS shares information to help you and your family live safe and healthy lives.

Travel vaccines: Your ticket to safe and fun travel

Are you planning a trip outside of the United States? It’s a good idea to find out the recommended immunizations for the place you’re visiting. 

To find out which vaccines are needed for your destination, go to:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Travelers’ Health

You’ll find a wealth of travel information at this site: food and water recommendations, disease outbreak areas, recommended precautions, and much more. It’s a great place to start when planning a trip.

Follow @UtahDHHS or subscribe to their emails for updates about vaccines for travelers.

Taking long COVID one day at a time

One of the downsides of getting COVID is the risk of long-term health effects. Long COVID has a wide range of symptoms and can last for weeks, months, and even years. It can happen to anyone infected with COVID. It’s more common among people who were not vaccinated, are in high-risk groups, or experienced severe illness from COVID.
 
Common symptoms of long COVID (not a complete list):

• Body aches
• Changes in menstrual cycles
• Cough
• Depression or anxiety
• Diarrhea 
• Dizziness when standing
• Fatigue
• Fast or pounding heart (heart palpitations)
• Fever
• Hair loss
• Headache
• Loss or change in taste or smell
• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• Sleep problems
• Stomach pain
• Rash
• Symptoms that worsen after physical or mental activities (post-exertional malaise)

If you have long COVID symptoms, it’s a good idea to visit a doctor. They can diagnose long COVID or rule out other causes of your symptoms, and they can help develop a treatment plan for you. Under certain circumstances, long COVID may be classified as a disability.

Some clinics in Utah are studying the effects of long COVID. Your doctor may refer you to one of these speciality clinics. Clinic visits and treatment may not be covered by your health insurance. You should ask your insurance company about potential costs before you go.

Support groups are a great resource for people with long COVID. People with chronic conditions like long COVID can experience distress, anxiety, and depression. There are local groups providing peer support with people who share similar experiences. Some meet in person, and some exist on social media.

For more information about long COVID clinics or support groups, visit:
https://coronavirus.utah.gov/covid19-long-haulers/

In the future, you can find news about COVID by following @UtahDHHS or subscribing to their email list.
 
Thanks again for all you’ve done these past few years to keep yourself and others healthy!  
 
Sincerely,
The Utah Department of Health & Human Services
and the Utah COVID-19 Response Team

Medicare also covers many health screenings and preventive services so you can stay healthy and keep from getting sick.Health screenings can find health problems early before something becomes serious and when treatment works best.

Talk to your doctor or go to https://dhhs.utah.gov/up2date/ to make sure you’re up-to-date on the recommended health screenings and immunizations for your age.

Stay up-to-date on immunizations

Available flu vaccines have been updated this season to help protect against 4 different flu viruses expected to circulate in Utah and the rest of the U.S. Flu vaccines are widely available and many times are provided at no cost to you. To find a flu provider near you, search your ZIP code at https://www.vaccines.gov/find-vaccines/. To see what’s happening with flu in Utah, visit https://epi.health.utah.gov/influenza-reports/. Numbers are updated weekly, generally on Wednesday.

The new bivalent COVID-19 vaccine contains 2 components to provide better protection against COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant. To find a COVID-19 vaccine in Utah, visit https://coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine-distribution/.

For the last 2+ years, the COVID-19 hotline has been answered by a dedicated team at the Utah Poison Control Center. On Thursday, October 6, the hotline will switch over to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. The new hotline number will be 385-273-7878. 
 
The Utah Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) staff will answer calls Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can call this number if you need to talk with a contact tracer, get test results from a DHHS COVID-19 testing location, or with general questions on COVID-19 including where to find testing or vaccinations. 
 
The website https://coronavirus.utah.gov, its webchat feature, and the @UtahCoronavirus social media channels are still up and running with the latest information on COVID-19, safety measures, and available treatments and vaccines. 
 
We can’t thank the team at the Utah Poison Control Center enough for their dedication to helping Utahns find accurate, timely information on COVID-19. Since March 2020, they’ve answered more than 368,000 phone calls!

THANK YOU

“The COVID-19 Information Line team has been a lifesaver, both literally and figuratively. The team has allowed the Utah Department of Health to connect with the Utah community in ways that would be completely impossible without them. They have served as our voice and our hands, reaching out to thousands of Utahns with information and help. There is no doubt they have saved lives by providing people with information and getting them connected to resources across the state. The COVID-19 Information Line team should be extremely proud of the work they have done over these last two years.”
—Dr. Leisha Nolen, MD, PhD, State Epidemiologist
Utah Department of Health and Human Services

Check to see if you’re up-to-date on all immunizations, whether for yourself or your children, as well as health screenings and well-child checks:

Utah children missed nearly 340,000 routine immunizations in 2020 and 2021. Missing immunizations leave children and families vulnerable to infections and outbreaks of preventable diseases. 
 
Many kids also missed their well-child visits during the pandemic. If your child hasn’t had a well check in the last year or two, it’s time to schedule an appointment with your child’s doctor. 
 
Wellness checkups are more than just checkups for babies or a schedule of when to get shots. Kids grow and develop quickly, and need to learn to do many new things during childhood and adolescence. You know your child best—and doctors know that. Wellness checkups are how you and a healthcare provider you trust can work together as a team to keep your child or teen safe, healthy, and developing the skills needed at different times in life. 
 
See what checkups and immunizations your child needs based on their age:

Adults need to stay up-to-date on immunizations, too.

Falling behind on immunizations puts you at risk for serious diseases that are still common in the United States. Getting sick can cause you to miss work or prevent you from being able to care for your family or other responsibilities. Immunizations lower your chances of getting sick, spreading certain diseases, and are one of the safest ways to protect your health.

Check in with your doctor.

Most chronic diseases and health conditions can be prevented, or are much easier to treat if found early. Your body doesn’t always give you warning signs, but your healthcare provider has the tools to help identify health problems and conditions.  
 
Most preventive health checkups and screenings are covered by insurance. Make an appointment to get a checkup and talk to your doctor about which health screenings and immunizations you need for your age.
 
See what health screenings and immunizations are recommended for you:

“This is the natural next step in getting the state and people’s lives back to normal,” Gov. Cox said. “I believe in the value of work. With the nation’s lowest unemployment rate at 2.9% and plenty of good paying jobs available today, it makes sense to transition away from these extra benefits that were never intended to be permanent. The market should not be competing with government for workers.”

Approximately 28,000 Utahns are currently receiving this additional $300-per-week federal benefit. Of those, 11,000 are receiving federal extended benefits, 2,500 individuals receive federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and 200 receive federal Mixed-Earner Unemployment Compensation. Currently, federal pandemic unemployment assistance in Utah totals $12.4 million a week. 

With the state’s economic recovery in full swing, there is no shortage of jobs in Utah. The Department of Workforce Services website, jobs.utah.gov, has 50,000 available job openings, while job listings aggregator Help Wanted shows 72,000 available jobs in Utah. 

“As employers compete for workers, we are ready to help those local businesses recruit and hire employees,” said Casey Cameron, executive director of the Department of Workforce Services. “For job seekers, we can provide career coaching, education assistance, job search help and more, either online or in-person at an employment center. For many workers, this transition can be a great time to gain additional skills and open doors to new opportunities.”

Utah’s business community applauded the move.

“All across Utah, in a variety of industries, we are seeing the significant need for new employees,” said Derek Miller, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber and Downtown Alliance. “The challenge our economy currently faces is not the scarcity of well-paying jobs, but the lack of workers. For our state to remain a national economic leader and for our communities to be prosperous, we need to normalize the labor market by assisting those currently unemployed to find opportunities to rejoin the workforce as soon as possible.”

For those who need help finding employment, the state is an incredible resource. Through the Learn and Work program, the state of Utah and the Utah System of Higher Education have dedicated $16.5 million to help more than 5,700 individuals get training and find better employment opportunities. Over the next several weeks an additional $15 million will be awarded to training institutions throughout the state to help those who want to upgrade their skills to enhance employment opportunities. Funding is also available for career and education advancement through Workforce Services.

For those still struggling due to the pandemic, other safety net programs are available such as rent, utility, food and medical assistance. For more information about additional pandemic relief programs and details about the federal unemployment insurance programs ending, visit jobs.utah.gov.

“What a tremendous testament to the innovative and collaborative spirit in Utah, one that has allowed us to lead the nation in such an important way. Utah has shown a commitment to the total health of children by working together to balance risks, build bridges, and use every available resource to get students back to in-person learning safely,” said Dr. Michelle Hofmann, deputy director at the Utah Department of Health. “This recognition is well-deserved and we have so much and so many partners to be thankful for. We look forward to seeing where this goes next, as we adapt and respond together on behalf of the well-being of our students and teachers.”

The Utah COVID-19 School Manual was one of the first guidance documents in the country designed to help school administrators navigate the complexities of operating in-person learning as safely as possible during the pandemic. In addition, the Test to Play and Test to Stay programs provide assurance to school administrators and parents that schools and extracurricular activity programs continue to operate safely. 

When most Utah schools reopened for in-person instruction in fall 2020, the Utah Department of Health, with support from researchers from the University of Utah’s Health and Economic Recovery Outreach (HERO) project, observed COVID-19 rates were higher among youth aged 15–24 years than among younger students. With a commitment from the federal government to provide a stable supply of BinaxNOW tests earmarked for K-12 schools, the Utah Department of Health prioritized distributing tests to high schools throughout the state, and developed the Test to Play and Test to Stay programs. 

The Test to Play program lets students safely participate in extracurricular activities.

Test to Play was implemented in November 2020 by a state public health order. The goal of Test to Play is to allow students and staff to participate in extracurricular activities as safely as possible. If masks are not worn during the activity, extracurricular activities may be higher-risk environments than school classrooms. Regular testing can find students and staff who are infectious with COVID-19 quickly and help prevent further spread of the virus in the school and community. Under the program, students, teachers, and staff may participate in extracurricular activities if they:

• Are tested for COVID-19 at least once every 14 days. 
• Are not in isolation or quarantine. 
• Don’t have any symptoms of COVID-19.

The Test to Stay program is effective at keeping schools open for in-person learning.

Test to Stay was implemented in January 2021 by a policy outlined in the Utah COVID-19 School Manual. The goals of Test to Stay are to allow students and staff to participate in in-person learning as safely as possible, while lessening the burden quarantine and repeated soft closures have on students and their families, teachers, and school administrators. When a school meets outbreak thresholds outlined in the COVID-19 School Manual, the local education authority (in consultation with the local health department) can decide to either:

• Offer rapid antigen testing for all students and staff, or
• Take other actions consistent with public health guidance to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Testing students and staff on a statewide scale is feasible and can help slow the spread of COVID-19. 

A survey conducted with school administrators in February 2021 by the Utah Department of Health showed: 

• Low positivity rates in Test to Stay and Test to Play events. This indicates using these types of testing strategies, along with guidelines in the COVID-19 School Manual, make a difference and help to stop the spread of COVID-19 among school populations.
• Sixty-one percent of school administrators who responded to the survey feel the Test to Stay program has effectively kept schools open for in-person learning. 
• Test to Stay events helped students’ families feel more comfortable and confident sending students to school. 
• Test to Stay events increased community buy-in for future testing events and mitigation strategies. 

The Utah Department of Health, with support and commitment from the Utah State Board of Education, Utah High School Activities Association, local school districts and schools, researchers at the University of Utah, and Utah’s 13 local health departments, has shown these types of testing programs are not only feasible for K-12 schools to implement statewide, but also important ways to prevent outbreaks in the school setting and greater community. 

One year ago today, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The toll of this disease and the continued loss of life around the world and in our nation is heartbreaking. To so many of you who have felt the pain and loss of a loved one during this pandemic – you have suffered the ultimate loss, and we grieve with you.

After a year of this fight, we are tired, we are lonely, we are impatient. There have been too many missed family gatherings, too many lost milestones and opportunities, too many sacrifices. And still, through it all, there is determination; there are stories of giving and hope, of stamina and perseverance.  We are better together, and together, we will endure.

The vaccination of millions every day gives me hope. Hope that we can beat this pandemic. And hope that we can get back to being with our family, friends, and community. And soon.

Earlier this week, CDC released our first evidence-based guidance for fully vaccinated people. These new recommendations are a first step in our process of returning to everyday activities – safely spending time with family and friends, hugging our grandparents and grandchildren, and celebrating birthdays and holidays.

While we accumulate more evidence to support the safe return to everyday activities, please continue taking precautions in public and when around people who are at high risk for severe COVID-19 disease. Whether you are already vaccinated or not yet vaccinated, wear a well-fitted mask, practice physical distancing, wash your hands often, avoid medium and large gatherings, and avoid travel. We know these measures work to prevent the spread of this virus and help protect each other. 

This pandemic will end. And, our public health work will continue. Through the near-blinding spotlight of this crisis, we now clearly see what we should have addressed before– the long-standing inequities that prevent us from achieving optimal health for all. We see the impact of years of neglect of our public health infrastructure. We see the critical need for data that move faster than disease, to prevent rather than react. To move past this pandemic, we must resolutely face these challenges head on and fully embrace the innovations, the new partnerships, and the resilience of our communities that have emerged from this crisis. It is the only way we can turn tragedy and sorrow into lasting progress and improved health for all.

In one year, we have lost over 520,000 Americans to COVID-19. These are grandparents, parents, and children. They are siblings, friends, and neighbors. They are our loved ones and our community. We join together to grieve these losses and intensify our efforts so they were not in vain. I thank you for your perseverance and for your unity of mission. Together, our strength and hope will guide us to the end of this pandemic.

Utah COVID-19 Response

In Utah, the COVID-19 response began early. By mid-March, Governor Herbert had already created the COVID-19 Community Task Force to monitor the situation. That task force was led by then Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox and included members from the Utah Department of Health, Utah Department of Public Safety, Utah Division of Emergency Management and others. Governor Herbert declared a state of emergency on March 6, 2020.

As part of that initial response, the state launched coronavirus-stage.at.utah.gov. Since March 2020, there have been over 49,000,000 hits to our website, amounting to approximately 9,000,000 unique visitors. The most visited page on the site is our case counts dashboard. The case counts dashboard represents the UDOH’s commitment to be transparent about the COVID-19 situation in Utah. The dashboard has grown over the past year to include demographic information, outbreak information and vaccine information.

Utah COVID-19 Response Storymap

A storymap outlining Utah’s COVID-19 response has been created. You can explore it here.

“This week we join all Americans in mourning those we’ve lost to COVID-19, including the 1,853 Utahns who have died,” Gov Cox said. “May God bless their loved ones and all of us with comfort and healing at this difficult time.”

Flags will be flown at half-staff at all state facilities from sundown tonight through Friday, Feb. 26. All Utahns and private businesses are encouraged to participate as well. 

President Biden’s proclamation is provided in full below.

REMEMBERING THE 500,000 AMERICANS LOST TO COVID-19

– – – – – – –

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

A PROCLAMATION

As of this week during the dark winter of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 500,000 Americans have now died from the virus. That is more Americans who have died in a single year of this pandemic than in World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War combined. On this solemn occasion, we reflect on their loss and on their loved ones left behind. We, as a Nation, must remember them so we can begin to heal, to unite, and find purpose as one Nation to defeat this pandemic.

In their memory, the First Lady and I will be joined by the Vice President and the Second Gentleman for a moment of silence at the White House this evening. I ask all Americans to join us as we remember the more than 500,000 of our fellow Americans lost to COVID-19 and to observe a moment of silence at sunset. I also hereby order, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and on all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset February 26, 2021. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same period at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-second day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

The State of Utah has made intentional efforts to start to combat these disparities including through the creation of the Multicultural Advisory Committee, first formed by Governor Gary R. Herbert. This partnership has continued with Governor Spencer Cox’s administration. The group aims to address disparities and systemic barriers for underrepresented groups as it relates to COVID-19 and beyond by elevating best practices to engage, inform, and empower communities so that an infrastructure for future crisis and resource delivery can be founded on serving the needs of those most vulnerable. 

The statement released by the Utah Hospital Association and partners marks future steps to combat racism in all forms so that “everyone has an opportunity to succeed and live a healthy life”, and in so doing, creating a thriving Utah that is a welcoming place to all. It’s never too late to stand against racism and injustice, and it requires collective voices and actions to make a difference. 

To read the full statement visit: https://www.utahhospitals.org/blog/item/212-uha-hospital-systems-announce-statement-on-racism-and-health

Join us via Facebook Live on Tuesday, January 5th at 6 PM for a conversation on equitable COVID-19 response efforts! We will hear from leaders of the Multicultural Advisory Committee and other state and community organizations that are on the frontlines of policy, health, communications, and economic relief.

This panel will serve as an update to how COVID-19 efforts in Utah have evolved to better center equity and access to services, information, and resources, as well as highlight the value of unity and cross-collaboration in the midst of a crisis.

FEATURING:

• Moderator: Rebecca Cressman, FM 100.3 & KSL Radio
• Nubia Peña, Chair of Multicultural Advisory Committee for State of Utah Covid-19 Response & Director of Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs
• Byron Russell, Co-chair of Multicultural Advisory Committee for State of Utah COVID-19 Response
• Ze Min Xiao, Co-chair of Multicultural Advisory Committee for State of Utah COVID-19 Response
• Jenny Johnson, Utah Department of Health
• Oreta Tupola, Community Health Worker
• Silvia Castro, Suazo Business Center