What you need to know about Utah’s new ‘Steady State‘ COVID-19 response

This past week, we announced that it’s time for Utah’s response to the coronavirus pandemic to shift to better match where we are.

By March 31, our response will transition to what we are calling a “Steady State.” Some elements of the response will transition to being the responsibility of our highly capable health care systems. This will allow our public health system to refocus on things a public health system would normally look after, like disease surveillance, data collection and reporting, vaccinations, and public awareness. If we see another surge, we will maintain teams and contracts that allow for ramping back up quickly if necessary.

Here’s what this means for you.

COVID-19 testing in Utah

Testing sites across the state will close as we transition away from community sites to health care settings, private providers — for events and travel — and at-home testing.

We still recommend certain people seek testing, including older people with high-risk conditions, vulnerable populations and those who work with them and those who often visit vulnerable people. These Utahns should seek testing through their health care provider.

Health care and treatment of COVID-19 in Utah

Similar to testing, health care and treatments will become more fully based in the health care system. Monoclonal antibody treatments are available in hospitals and urgent cares statewide. Health care providers across the state are now able to prescribe oral antivirals.

State contracts for COVID positive long-term care facilities are drawing to a close and we are demobilizing UDOH treatment sites. Public health will, however, continue to support navigating vulnerable populations to care.

COVID-19 data reporting in Utah

Utah will continue to provide public information, but less often. We will be decreasing dashboard update frequency from daily to weekly.

We know this isn’t over and will continue watching the data closely, tracking wastewater, clinic and ER visits, hospitalizations, and deaths. We’re also keeping an eye on new variants or any increase in cases and will ramp back up if needed.

COVID-19 vaccines in Utah

Vaccines have been and will be the surest way out of the pandemic. This administration is dedicated to getting vaccines to as many people as possible. 

That includes vaccinations for children younger than five as soon as they are authorized. We’ve made great strides in preparing for this: At least 79% of the state’s health care providers who participate in the Vaccines for Children program are also now enrolled to administer COVID vaccines. We will continue to work with the remaining 21% of providers to convince them to offer COVID vaccines to their patients as well.

We know that vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself from the coronavirus. Please help out our community by getting vaccinated today!

Moving forward

This is not the “end” of the pandemic. We’re still keeping an eye on the future and are ready to ramp back up if necessary. But we’ve made great strides in fighting the pandemic:

In the past two years, we’ve 

• announced an additional 917,000+ cases.
• processed more than 9.1 million tests.
• administered more than 4.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
• closed schools, and safely re-opened them.

All of the key metrics are moving in the right direction. Vaccines are widely available and hopefully soon everyone older than six months will be eligible to receive the vaccine. Treatments are more widely available, and supplies are improving every week. Testing is available in the comfort of your own home! Hospitals and ICUs — and the health care workers who staff them — are still at high levels, as they trail behind other indicators, but they too are finally starting to see some relief.

As always, you can find coronavirus information at coronavirus.utah.gov and health.utah.gov.

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