Brady Bradford, health director, gave an update on all things COVID-19 during the Southeast Utah Health Department (SEUHD) board meeting on Tuesday evening.
He stated that they are seeing quite a few residents that have received the first dose of the vaccine but have not come back for the second. Generally, the department educates people to wait three or four weeks before returning for the second dose. However, it was stated that if it has to be pushed out farther, they do not have to start over with the first dose as long as it is within about six months.
It was also stated that Grand County is seeing more people being vaccinated because the residents are highly enthusiastic about the vaccine. At this time, only one confirmed death in the region was vaccinated. Bradford also stated that deaths are 70% lower than they were last year due to the vaccine.
The shared goal is keeping kids healthy and attending school in-person by mitigating spread in the classroom. Masks will be a personal choice based on what is happening, what the person is doing and where they may be.
The objectives are to examine historic and current COVID-19 data trends for the K-12 age groups and describe roles of key stakeholders in the COVID-19 school response. Informing parents and letting them make the decision from that point is what the health department plans to do.
“We want kids to be in school,” said Bradford.
Bradford then shared that the delta variant is about 80% of cases these days. One interesting note about delta is that vaccinated people that are affected with the delta variant likely won’t have major disease or symptoms. However, they can be infectious as the viral side of delta is very significant.
Bradford also stated that it looks like the variant is targeting the younger age group. The SEUHD will continue to work on educational testing, disease planning and vaccination resources, among other topics.