Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

OGDEN — COVID-19 case numbers are way down in Weber and Morgan counties, on par with lows of the summer of 2021, before the gradual rise that coincided with the start of the 2021-2022 school year and the subsequent omicron spike just last month.

Underscoring the careful pose health officials have struck throughout the pandemic, however, Brian Cowan, the director of the Weber-Morgan Health Department, isn’t declaring victory. He’s “cautiously optimistic,” he said Monday, while also noting the difficulty in knowing if another variant may be around the corner, ready to cause another spike in cases.

“It’s hard to predict,” he said Monday.

At the very least, residents in the two counties can breathe a temporary sigh of relief, though.

“The good news is we’ve had declining case numbers for several weeks now,” Cowan told the Weber-Morgan Board of Health at the body’s regular meeting on Monday. The two counties weathered the omicron peak “and now we’re on the decline and our case numbers are much, much more manageable.”

Image supplied, Utah Department of Health

He said the current seven-day average of new cases, the daily average over the past seven days, is around 32, way down from the peak of 782 cases a day as of Jan. 24, the local peak. Utah Department of Health figures posted online actually show a seven-day average in Weber and Morgan counties of just 11.9 cases a day as of Sunday.

Moreover, Cowan said there are 1,700 active cases currently in the two counties, down from 14,216 on Jan. 24. “Quite a big difference from just four weeks ago,” he said.

In the two Weber County hospitals, Ogden Regional Medical Center and McKay-Dee Hospital, he reported the “lightest hospitalization impact” since the first COVID-19 wave of cases in the fall of 2020. Of the 30 intensive-care unit beds in the hospitals, just four of the 20 that were occupied were for COVID-19 patients.

“Its good to see some of the pressure is relieved on our hospitals,” Cowan said. Case numbers at schools, similarly, have also plummeted.

Cowan alluded to Gov. Spencer Cox’s aim to transition Utah’s COVID-19 response to a “steady state” by the end of March. That will entail shifting the bulk of COVID-19 testing to the private health care system, not the state-financed private-sector providers like TestUtah.

Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner

Cowan also said that, perhaps by July 1, the Weber-Morgan Health Department might start assessing administrative fees for providing COVID-19 vaccinations. It’s something the health department is mulling, anyway. COVID-19 vaccinations have thus far been financed largely by federal funds, but that money will soon run out.

As is, insured people getting other vaccinations must pay a $30 administration fee, though allowances are made for lower-income people, according to Cowan. A possible exception if the health department implements fees for COVID-19 vaccines may be for vaccines given to children aged 0 to 5, if they are ultimately allowed in the age group.

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