FILE - Nurse Lydia Holly prepares a child's COVID-19 vaccine dose, on Nov. 3, 2021, at Children's National Hospital in Washington. U.S. regulators are urging drugmaker Pfizer to apply for emergency authorization for a two-dose regimen of its COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 and under while awaiting data on a three-dose course, aiming to clear the way for the shots as soon as late February. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced Friday that Utah will no longer treat COVID-19 like an emergency. Rather, it will be treated like every other seasonal illness.
At a press conference, the governor said Utah is in a much better place than it was two years ago and that Utah’s response to COVID-19 can now change.
“This idea that we have to get stuck in some crazy situation forever is very, very unscientific,” he said. “And quite frankly, I’m very disappointed in the media members that continue to perpetuate that, instead of understanding.”
But Cox noted what he called “huge change in the national media.”
At a press conference, he said that by March 31, Utah will be in a “steady state phase” of COVID. One example of what this will look like, said state Epidemiologist Dr. Leisha Nolen, is that the state health department will stop focusing on daily cases counts.
“Throughout this next year, years, we’re going to be keeping an eye on everything, making sure we can respond and ramp back up from that steady state if we need to.
“But for now we’re going to be moving forward with this longer-term trend, analysis, in approaching things instead of on a day-to-day basis, more on an overall pattern,” Nolen said.