Summit County is weathering the summer wave of coronavirus with case numbers at their lowest since the pandemic began four years ago.

Cumulative data from the Summit County Health Department respiratory disease dashboard shows there were 626 coronavirus cases as of Aug. 3 compared to 692 in 2019-2020, 4,589 in 2020-2021, 8,567 in 2021-2022 and 910 in 2022-2023. 

The total case counts per week are declining compared to each year, though there has been an overall increase throughout the year.

Nancy Porter, an epidemiologist with the Health Department, said the upward trend matches the overall seasonality of the virus — which has been harder to track than influenza or respiratory syncytial virus.

“There was a summer wave of COVID,” she said during an Aug. 5 Board of Health meeting. “We haven’t been seeing a lot of severe disease here, but we have been seeing increased numbers of COVID. I’ve noticed that our COVID testing tests have been going a bit quicker the past month.”

Porter acknowledged case counts are no longer the most accurate way to track COVID because testing throughout the state isn’t as accessible as it once was. So health officials rely on other data such as the virus’ presence in wastewater and hospitalizations.

Wastewater surveillance data detected the Silver Creek and East Canyon watersheds were in elevated states, while Coalville had been reduced to a low category. The figures were comparable to other sites throughout Utah. About 70% were in a high or elevated state and 20% were in a watch category as of early August, according to Porter.

Summit County hasn’t experienced many hospitalizations with just two residents being admitted for COVID in the past 90 days. The state saw an uptick at the start of the summer, but it’s since mellowed out.

While the current case counts don’t forecast what will happen later this year, Porter said health officials use data from the Southern Hemisphere to predict what Americans can expect for the 2024-2025 season.

It was still a bit too early to tell at the time Porter gave her report to the Board of Health, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has since released its outlook: Flu, COVID and RSV cases are expected to be similar or less severe this fall than last year.

The respiratory disease season is expected to kick off in September with a peak expected in January or February. County health officials plan to emphasize vaccination efforts in October to ensure residents are well covered by the shot. 

There will be three drive-through clinics throughout Summit County. One will be hosted in Kamas on Oct. 1, with events the following days in Coalville and Park City. All three Health Department locations will also be stocked with vaccines and booster shots, and staff plans to visit vulnerable populations such as seniors to ensure they’re covered.

Porter noted the impact of vaccines on the community’s health. Last year was one of the first years an RSV vaccine was offered to residents in certain age groups, and it made a significant difference in reducing the total number of cases. 

Summit County experienced one of its worst RSV seasons in 2022-2023 with 195 cases that January. Earlier this year, it was reduced to 68 cases. 

“COVID shook things up for a bit, but I think we’re starting to transition back [to typical seasonality],” she said.

Porter also discussed the Community Health Assessment, a strategic plan to guide how resources should be allocated to best meet community needs. She’s set a goal to hit 1,000 surveys by November. The Health Department received 392 as of early August.

Visit summitcountyhealth.org for more information.

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Park City during the Sundance Film Festival could be as crowded as it has been since the start of the pandemic.

Although the scene on Thursday, the first day of the festival, seemed muted by the evening hours, the weekend will provide a better measure of whether Sundance reaches toward levels of the pre-pandemic era. There would be shoulder-to-shoulder crowds on the Main Street sidewalks and bumper-to-bumper traffic on Main Street and elsewhere during Sundance prior to the pandemic.

One of the early, and important, projections was made last fall by Sundance itself. Joana Vicente, the CEO of the Sundance Institute, briefly addressed the possibility of a crowded festival during an October appearance at the Marsac Building.

Vicente spoke to Mayor Nann Worel and the Park City Council about long-range plans for Sundance, but she also mentioned the 2024 festival. She told the elected officials Sundance would be “prioritizing the in-person experience” and wanted people to return to Park City for the event “hopefully to the levels of pre-pandemic.”

A current projection of the anticipated attendance was not available from Sundance late in the workweek.

The 2024 festival is the second held in person after the pandemic-forced move online for two consecutive years. The festival in 2023 proved to be a solid comeback after two years, with aggregate spending reaching nearly $126 million, according to a Sundance economic report released in the months after the event. Categories like recreation and entertainment, lodging and meals led the spending, the report found.

Sundance in the pre-pandemic era was typically an especially lucrative stretch of the calendar for a range of business sectors. Lodging rates were some of the highest of the year, restaurants were jammed and the transportation industry was hopping well into the overnight hours. The spending tends to benefit people across the economic spectrum, from business and property owners who temporarily lease space as corporate interests seeking visibility in Park City during Sundance to restaurant servers and transportation industry drivers working extended hours.

Although economic data compiled during Sundance will not be available until months after the festival, the weekend will provide at least some anecdotal evidence regarding spending. The opening days of the festival, from Thursday until Sunday, are usually the busiest of the 11-day event and can be a barometer for spending. Many businesses on Main Street, particularly restaurants and nightclubs, enjoy brisk business while there is usually fluctuation in retail depending on the goods a store carries.

Lodging projections showed Park City was expected to be busiest with people from outside of the community during the opening days of Sundance. The most recent Park City Chamber/Bureau lodging report, dated Dec. 31 and based on 21 properties representing a range of options, indicated the peak is expected on the first Saturday of Sundance, when occupancy was forecast to reach 83%. The 83% projection was also higher than the Dec. 31, 2022, forecast for any date during Sundance in 2023. The projections drop as the festival reaches the closing days, as is typical.

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The City Hall swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday featured words of inspiration as three members of the Park City Council took the oath of office.

It was a joyous occasion on Swede Alley at the bottom of the Marsac Building steps as the crowd gathered to watch Ryan Dickey, Ed Parigian and Bill Ciraco begin their four-year terms. Each of them delivered remarks conveying their hopes for the community six weeks after the end of a mild-mannered campaign.

Dickey was the first-place finisher on Election Day and secured a full first term as a member of the City Council after a midterm appointment in early 2022. His remarks at the swearing-in ceremony included a statement about the fall campaign being positive and focused on Park City’s future, and he said he is proud and happy for Parigian and Ciraco.

He also made a brief comment about the state of the coronavirus nearly four years after the pandemic-forced shutdowns in the spring of 2020.

“We’re together. COVID’s over. We have things we want to do. We have a lot of unanimity of purpose and things we want to achieve. And I was just really proud to see that over this entire campaign. And was proud to see it to the end,” Dickey told the crowd.

His comment about the coronavirus came amid what is usually one of the busiest stretches of the year in Park City’s tourism industry. Any increases in coronavirus numbers as a result of the busy holiday period likely would just be starting, while any spread of the sickness during the upcoming Sundance Film Festival would not be apparent until after the event starts.

In a subsequent interview, Dickey qualified his assertion during the swearing-in ceremony.

“Largely, we’ve returned to normal,” he said. “I think the pandemic is over. … We’re no longer in a pandemic. COVID’s definitely not over.”

Dickey also said society has entered a new normal and is “living with COVID.”

He said people are “living life in a very similar way to how we were living in 2019,” prior to the pandemic. The “forward-looking, positive” nature of the City Hall campaign in 2023 and reduced anxieties about the municipal government were examples of a return to a pre-pandemic era, he said.

The pandemic “exacerbated political tensions as we spent more time isolated, at home, online,” Dickey said. “COVID era and the pandemic, we’re passed it.”

The Summit County Health Department tracking of coronavirus late in the workweek showed cases in December declining from the same period the year before and trending significantly below the numbers recorded in 2020 and 2021.

City Hall itself did not lead the efforts to combat the pandemic since public health is not one of the municipality’s functions, and the city largely deferred to Summit County, state and federal health officials. Park City officials, though, played a key role in the work to buttress the economy amid the pandemic convulsions that started in spring 2020.

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Summit County officials rescinded the state of emergency declaration they issued more than two years ago as the Summit County Health Department pushes for a more individual-focused approach to COVID – which for some may include another booster shot.

Phil Bondurant and Shelley Worley, the director and deputy director of the Summit County Health Department, met with Summit County Council on March 30 to provide an update about the future of the pandemic in the community. Although there is still some concern about COVID, they said there is no longer a need for emergency response and will transition back to a traditional public health role heading into spring.

“We do find ourselves in a very remarkable spot,” Bondurant said. “Those metrics that we use under the current situation would indicate that we are no longer in an emergency state as it relates to COVID.”

The shift comes as more tools like vaccines, boosters, monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals — specifically at various health care systems, hospitals and urgent care centers – have become widely available to the general public. Moving forward, Bondurant asks each community member to consider the right health and safety precautions for themselves as well as others.

For older adults and immunocompromised individuals, this could include receiving a second booster. The Summit County Health Department began administering the vaccine on Friday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized an additional dose on March 29 upon the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Individuals seeking a second booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines must be at least 50 years old and have received their first booster dose at least four months earlier.

Children aged 12 and older can receive the Pfizer vaccine if they are immunocompromised and individuals who have undergone organ transplants or who are living with conditions that are considered equal to being immunocompromised also qualify, according to the Summit County Health Department. Individuals who are 18 or older with the same conditions may receive the Moderna vaccine.

The Health Department is not planning to host another mass vaccination clinic to administer the second booster vaccine but will offer it at its locations in Coalville, Park City and Kamas. Individuals seeking another dose are asked to make an appointment with the Summit County Health Department during business hours.

As of April 5, around 46% of people living in Summit County who are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine have received a booster shot. The figure was around 33% in January, when health officials hoped to increase the rate in response to the more contagious omicron variant.

Officials also continue to monitor new variants like BA.2, which Bondurant said is likely already within the community. However, he believes the high vaccination rates in Summit County – 87% of eligible residents have completed their vaccination series – will prevent another spike in cases. Daily case counts in Summit County have been in the single digits nearly every day since late February, according to the most recent data provided by the Health Department.

“One of the many things we’ve learned during this process is that Summit County is always the canary in the mine for the state of Utah. Being that BA.2 has been found in other parts of the United States, I have no doubt it’s present in the community,” Bondurant said. “As it sits here in Summit County, we’ll keep an eye on it.”

Summit County is also testing at a higher rate than anywhere else in the state, according to Bondurant. While the Utah Department of Health began closing testing sites as part of Utah’s “steady state” response, testing in Summit County remained available. Local health officials plan to continue offering testing in some capacity through the end of the school year by utilizing a third-party contractor as well as self-testing kiosks in Coalville and Kamas.

The Health Department also created a committee to distribute home test kits provided by the state to local organizations that assist certain populations like senior citizens or child care centers to address possible future surges.

Since March 13, 2020, when the state’s first case of community transmission was identified in Summit County, the Health Department has administered 159,357 tests and reported 13,436 cases, according to Bondurant’s presentation. There have been 266 hospitalizations and 23 deaths in the county.

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In March 2020, when the emergence of COVID-19 spurred then-Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to order the closure of public schools throughout the state, the jobs of Park City School District teachers changed drastically.

The stress level went up immediately and adding to the difficulty was a 5.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Magna and shook the Wasatch Front and Back on March 18, 2020, the first day of remote teaching.

“We basically turned teaching around on a dime and we taught using several modalities, including meeting students in person and online,” said Renee Pinkney, a Park City High School social studies teacher. “Out of sheer necessity, we had to master technological skills we never dreamed of.”

It was challenging to teach both the students sitting in front of her and others who were at home on Zoom at the same time, she said, and teachers had to be more flexible in their teaching.

Then there was the concern about the deadly virus that has now taken the lives of 23 Summit County residents and nearly 1 million people in the United States. Pinkney said people have been in a state of “fight-or-flight” for two years because no one knew what was coming around the corner, including how the coronavirus would affect them personally.

“I don’t say that just about teachers but for everyone worrying about getting COVID or exposing family members or having co-morbidities or being high risk,” she said.

At the two-year mark of the pandemic, life is starting to get back to normal for teachers — or at least a new normal — but getting to this point has been tough.

After the pandemic struck, schools in the Park City School District switched to online teaching for the rest of the spring semester until they reopened in August 2020. Students at that point could to go to school in person, opt for remote learning or take some classes in person and others online. Teachers sometimes taught from their homes if they needed to quarantine or take care of family members who were sick.

“The uncertainty of what each day was going to bring was really stressful,” said Sam Thompson, a fifth-grade teacher at Trailside Elementary. “The continual changing of the conditions, mandates and things like that were really difficult.”

Teaching was the least effective during the weeks that the schools were closed because online learning is challenging for a lot of students, especially children in the elementary grades, he said.

Once in-person classes resumed, teachers had to implement new protocols, such as keeping track of where kids sat and wearing masks during the period when they were required, Thompson said. It was hard at first to get used to having a mask but he wore one gladly.

“I think I speak for a lot of teachers that we would much rather wear the mask and be with the kids in person than have to do the remote thing, and I think their parents would agree with that, as well,” Thompson said.

He said it’s starting to feel as if the schools are a little bit back to normal.

“I’m impressed by the intelligent people who have been able to come up with a plan to keep the train on the tracks and keep us going forward,” Thompson said.

Mary Morgan, who teaches choir and band at Ecker Hill Middle School, said the mask mandate made teaching difficult because she couldn’t hear the children sing.

Other challenges have been helping students who get behind because they got COVID or have difficulties at home and filling in for teachers who are out sick, Morgan said. There is a shortage of substitutes in the Park City School District, which adds to teachers’ workloads, she said.

“The Park City Education Association has been working closely with the School District and the board to allow teachers some extra time without having to fill up their days with meetings,” said Morgan, who is co-president of the teachers union. “That’s already in place right now. We’re working on some things to alleviate some stress for teachers.”

Morgan has firsthand experience with coronavirus — she got COVID in September and was out from work for 10 days. Because she had been vaccinated, her case was mild, she said.

Mary Sue Purzycki, who teaches anatomy and physiology at Park City High School, said this academic year has been a little less stressful “because it’s not so much on the fly.”

She prefers teaching in person because a lot of students do not like learning online and it can be hard to get them to engage.

“Last year was really hard. I lost probably a good third of my kids that were remote,” Purzycki said.

She added that there were students who missed some developmental milestones because of the pandemic. Some ninth-graders who were learning remotely when they made the transition from Treasure Mountain Junior High to the 10th grade at the high school lack the socialization they would have gotten if they had been attending classes in person, Purzycki said.

Some forgot how to “do school” and missed deadlines and didn’t turn in assignments, she said.

One of the biggest problems was that although every student had a computer, not all of them had good reliable internet, she said.

“Not knowing whether you’re going to have a good internet day or a bad internet day was hard for a lot of kids,” Purzycki said.

There were some positives, including learning how to teach and deliver content in a different way, she said.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes in education and COVID just gave us another reason to change,” Purzycki said.

The teachers said the students motivated them to keep going.

Morgan said students need them now more than ever, and not just for academics but for mental health reasons as well.

Pinkney, president-elect of the Utah Education Association, a statewide teachers’ union, said her other job is to advocate for strong public schools and to make sure they meet the needs of a diverse student population.

“I truly believe in the promise of public education and I knew how important it was for our students to have role models who were resilient and doing everything that we hu manly could to make sure that they could continue learning despite the fact that we were teaching during a pandemic and having to readjust continually,” she said.

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Low case and transmission rates led the Utah Department of Health to move Summit County into the low-risk category as the state starts to transition to a less intensive phase of the pandemic response, and local officials feel hopeful about where things stand moving into the spring and summer.

There were an average of four reported coronavirus cases each day in March throughout Summit County. And with no more than eight cases reported on any given day, the numbers are significantly lower than January where the highest single-day total was 234 cases. The reduction in positive cases even led the state’s health department to deem the community’s level of spread as low as Utah moves to its “steady state” response by March 31.

With where things stand locally, and across much of the state, Utah will transition away from an emergency-level approach to the pandemic led by health departments to one that’s more individualized and led by health care systems at the end of the month as the Utah Department of Health closes its testing sites.

Summit County Health Director Phil Bondurant said the trends are encouraging.

“I say ‘fairly optimistic’ because we’ve been in this position before where we’ve been really optimistic and something came in and helped us remember that if there’s anything we know about COVID, it’s that we don’t know a lot and it’s constantly changing,” he said. “However, a lot of the different tools that are necessary to manage COVID … I should say that I am optimistic about the future of COVID — especially in Summit County.”

Bondurant said the shift comes as more weapons are widely available to communities in the fight against COVID including vaccines, boosters, monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals — specifically at various health care systems, hospitals and urgent cares.

The Summit County Health Department, which utilizes a third-party contractor to provide coronavirus testing, has remained unaffected by the closure of state sites but debated whether to continue offering the service with demand declining.

However, local health officials felt it was important to continue offering testing in some capacity so they plan on extending their contact through April and until at least the end of the school year. Bondurant said it seemed like a natural transition point as the future of COVID will rely more on independent care.

Although officials are still working through the details, the county plans to offer self-serve kiosks as a form of testing in addition to testing provided by private clinics.

Looking back at the past two years of pandemic response, Bondurant said he feels proud of what Summit County has accomplished. He’s also grateful to Health Department staff who did the best with the limited knowledge they had at the start of the crisis and worked hard for the health and well-being of the community.

“There’s nobody in one way or another that was unaffected by COVID,” Bondurant said. “We should all be celebrating where we’re at in this response, understanding that the last two years have been challenging but we’ve learned a lot and we continue to improve and be better.”

He said the Health Department “built a small army to manage COVID” using state funds to hire contract and temporary staff, but will begin reducing its workforce of those employees as they are no longer needed.

Moving forward, the Health Department also hopes to improve health equity by addressing underserved areas that became highlighted during the COVID response as it transitions back to a traditional public health role.

Senior citizens were identified as a particular population that’s missing access to community resources, according to Bondurant. He said the pandemic helped open the Health Department’s eyes to certain issues like seniors struggling to make vaccine appointments — which predominantly moved online during COVID — because they don’t have internet access, or problems finding reliable transportation once they were able to get something scheduled.

“We’re just taking a step back and letting staff breathe. This is not something that we can just flip the switch overnight and go back to the way things were in February 2020,” Bondurant said. “Public health, in general, is going to have a new face. It’s going to have a new approach and it has to be evaluated to make sure what we do post-COVID is the best for the community — so staff is engaged in that.”

Health officials also continue to monitor positive cases in the community and the emergence of new variants like the BA.2 variant found in some states. Bondurant said the community will see new variants arrive for the foreseeable future so it’s important to continue following Center for Disease Control guidance and best health practices like handwashing.

He added that it’s important for each individual to take the right precautions for themselves and others, and not to judge if someone chooses to wear a mask — though it isn’t necessary for everyone.

The Summit County Health Department is planning to meet with Summit County Council to provide the community with an update on March 30.

“We look forward to better and brighter, and COVID-free days, hopefully,” Bondurant said.

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Park City Mountain Resort owner Vail Resorts on Monday lifted the requirement that people wear face coverings inside or when riding in a gondola car, a measure that had been key to the resort’s efforts to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic.

PCMR in a statement said the requirement remains intact in locations where public health measures require coverings and in places where the community level of the coronavirus is rated high. The rating was medium in Summit County at the beginning of the workweek, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC bases mask-wearing guidance on the community level numbers. The CDC rated another metric, community transmission, however, as high in Summit County at the beginning of the workweek.

The requirement was lifted at PCMR with approximately six weeks left in the ski season, which is scheduled to end April 17. The requirement was seen as a crucial coronavirus-fighting step during the current ski season as well as the previous one, which was the first full ski season of the pandemic.

As a result of the change, face coverings are not required in locations like PCMR restaurants, retailers, ski-rental locations, lodging properties and the base areas. PCMR said face coverings remain required on shuttles and buses based on guidance from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“Vail Resorts’ and Park City Mountain’s commitment to safety continues to be at the center of everything we do,” the statement said, adding, “We thank all of our guests and employees for their continued understanding and cooperation as we work together to provide a safe and enjoyable mountain experience for all.”

The statement acknowledged policies could change “based on the evolving nature of the pandemic as well as federal, state, and local public health guidelines.”

PCMR employees must continue wearing face coverings in common areas and in inside locations where they interact with guests. They will not be required to wear them in areas that are for designated for employees only.

The resort also said proof of vaccination for guests remains required for cafeteria-style dining.

PCMR at the start of the 2020-2021 ski season introduced a series of measures designed to protect public health in the months after the pandemic forced an early end to the 2019-2020 ski season.

Deer Valley Resort on Feb. 21, meanwhile, shifted its policy from requiring face masks to strongly recommending them for guests who are in inside spaces, including cafeterias. Deer Valley on Tuesday is expected to drop a requirement that most staffers wear masks inside and replace that policy with one that instead strongly recommends mask wearing by staffers. Deer Valley is also scheduled to finish the ski season on April 17.

The decisions by Vail Resorts and PCMR, and Deer Valley, are of particular interest in the community since they have such large footprints as employers and drivers of the tourism industry. The alteration of the policies could influence others as March, which is an important month in the ski industry, starts. There are expected to be heavy spring-break crowds arriving over the next three to four weeks before the tourism numbers typically drop at the beginning of April.

The ski industry is nearing the end of the second full season of the pandemic era. Numbers in the industry in Utah set a record in the 2020-2021 ski season as people sought outside activities with the coronavirus spreading. It is not known whether the current ski season is approaching the record numbers from last winter, but there have been large crowds in the Park City area throughout much of the time since the start of the holiday stretch in late December.

More information about PCMR safety protocols are available at: parkcitymountain.com/explore-the-resort/about-the-resort/winter-experience.aspx. More information about Deer Valley safety protocols are available at: deervalley.com/about-us/covid-operations.

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Health officials remain optimistic as spring nears as coronavirus cases in Summit County continue trending downward and Utah prepares to transition to a less intense phase of the pandemic response.

The current curve continues to point in the right direction as local case counts decline, even in schools, and other data indicators like wastewater samples and hospitalization rates show the trend will likely be sustained, according to Deputy Summit County Health Director Shelley Worley. Statewide data indicates that the rest of Utah also appears to be beyond the omicron surge, and state leaders are preparing for the next steps in the pandemic.

Utah health officials recently announced a plan to move to a “steady state” response by March 31, which shifts away from an overall public health approach to a more individualized one led by health care systems. Treatments for the coronavirus, including monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals, will be more widely available at various health care systems, hospitals and urgent cares as the Utah Department of Health begins closing its coronavirus response sites.

The transition includes closing community-based state testing sites as private practices, medical providers and at-home testing becomes more commonplace. Earlier in February, the state suspended its rapid test sites over accuracy concerns. The state will also update coronavirus case counts weekly rather than daily, with officials monitoring new variants and any case increases.

Testing in Summit County remains unaffected as the Health Department partners with a third-party contractor, which doesn’t use the BinaxNow tests in question in other parts of the state. Health officials initially expected higher demand for testing locally with sites closing in Salt Lake City but were confident the contractor would be able to manage the flow.

However, the demand hasn’t increased and instead continues to decline overall, according to Worley. The Health Department will continue reevaluating its contract until the end of March to determine if an extension is needed. COVID-19 testing is available Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Richardson Flat, Tuesday in Kamas and Friday in Coalville.

Worley said that health officials hope to maintain testing in Summit County for as long as possible so that they can easily respond if an outbreak occurs. However, she indicated that the service may no longer be needed if people begin utilizing other testing options.

“We want testing to be available to all residents and visitors, not just those living in Park City,” she said.

County health leaders announced their plans to transition out of a pandemic response weeks before the state released its plan.

Officials have been preparing messaging about what it means to be in an endemic, which occurs when a disease is regularly found in the community but infection rates remain static, and contact tracers have shifted their focus to preventing outbreaks rather than day-to-day tracking.

Worley supports the move to a “steady state” response based on the downward trends. She said it’s time to begin responsibly moving away from the emergency-level public health response but that officials plan to watch the numbers and respond to any surges if necessary.

“We’re keeping the thumb on the pulse to determine what’s next in public health response, which will likely be determined over the next few weeks,” Worley said. “The state is in a position where they’re trying to evaluate what is best for the community and people’s needs.”

There were 26 reported coronavirus cases in Summit County over Presidents Day weekend, with an additional six on Tuesday. During the same time, from Friday to Monday, there were 2,068 new cases statewide reported by the Utah Department of Health.

Worley believes that, with the knowledge and education that health officials and the public have gained over the last two years, everyone is in a good position to make the move to “steady state.” She encourages people to continue taking precautions to protect themselves and others by washing their hands, staying home if sick and getting vaccinated.

“This is the direction we need to start moving,” Worley said.

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The Summit County Health Department is preparing to transition out of its pandemic response with coronavirus cases continuing to trend downward to levels similar to before the omicron surge.

Looking at the current curve, Summit County is in “really good shape,” Health Director Phil Bondurant said during Monday night’s Board of Health meeting. There were 15 reported cases on Sunday compared to 179 just one month earlier on Jan. 6. Efforts to provide booster doses have also picked up some, with approximately 40% of residents having received a third dose.

Overall data tied to the county’s vaccination rates and natural immunity, wastewater samples and hospitalization rates — plus other factors like availability of antiviral treatments and a surplus of monoclonal antibody treatments — indicates that Summit County has likely moved beyond the peak of the pandemic, barring the emergence of a new variant, according to Bondurant.

The best metrics to consider are hospitalization rates and wastewater data, according to health experts, because they are not influenced by self-reporting. There have been 11 hospitalizations in Summit County in the last 30 days, according to the Health Department’s COVID-19 dashboard.

“Those numbers indicate the (downward) curve we’re seeing is indicative of what we’re seeing in the community,” Bondurant said. “Things look really good going into spring.”

The county will likely see an influx of visitors during Presidents Day weekend, but officials don’t believe that will cause a rise in cases — leading the Health Department to move toward the next phase of public health response to COVID-19. Officials are preparing to start messaging around a shift from the crisis being a pandemic to the virus being endemic, which occurs when a disease is regularly found in the community but infection rates remain static.

Contact tracers have been shifting their focus to high-priority cases and outbreak tracing rather than day-to-day tracking as numbers decline. Bondurant said this strategy has allowed them to get ahead of waves of cases in certain facilities.

Although state rapid testing has been suspended over accuracy concerns, testing in Summit County will be unaffected. The county utilizes a third-party contractor which doesn’t use the BinaxNow tests in question.

The Health Department does anticipate an increased demand for testing in Summit County with sites closing in Salt Lake City, but Bondurant is confident that the contractor will manage the flow — especially as local testing demand has dropped off significantly. Health officials are trying to work about 90 days ahead and have been coordinating with the ski resorts to determine the best strategies for international workers who need testing, too.

The turnaround time for a PCR test in Summit County is less than 72 hours, and rapid test results are typically received within 18 hours, officials said. Tests performed at Park City Hospital also come back around 72 hours when in the past it would take several days.

Bondurant expects the positivity rate in Summit County to remain high as individuals are often only getting tested if they are symptomatic or if they receive a positive at-home test. That is not indicative of the overall spread of the disease, however.

COVID-19 testing is available Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at Richardson Flat, Tuesday in Kamas and Friday in Coalville. Bondurant recognized that some Summit County residents now have to travel depending on when they need a test but is proud to continue offering testing every weekday.

“This is the best structure with the current demand,” he said.

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After the Utah Legislature last month terminated Summit County’s public mask mandate, it is once again up to private businesses to decide whether to require customers to mask up in their establishments.

At We Norwegians and other shops in the Park City area, the decision not to force customers to wear masks is one of practicality.

“We find that that is a little too much to put on our staff,” said Ailin Harklau, one of the managers of the Main Street clothing retailer, of trying to enforce a mask-wearing rule. “What we do is strongly encourage it.”

Employees at the store wear masks and they “keep a little bit more of a distance” from customers without masks if that makes them feel more comfortable, she said. Shoppers who ask for a mask are provided with one.

“We wish there was still an actual mandate from the Health Department,” she said.

Managers at several other shops in the Park City area are taking a similar approach and urging customers to wear masks rather than mandating it.

Lawmakers passed a resolution on Jan. 21 to immediately end mask mandates that had been put in place in Summit and Salt Lake counties through public health orders.

Summit County enacted a mask mandate on Jan. 7 in response to the record-breaking transmission of the COVID-19 omicron variant. After the Legislature’s vote, Phil Bondurant, the county’s health director, said in a prepared statement to The Park Record that the best practices continue to be staying home if sick, getting the vaccine and a booster shot, and wearing a mask in public indoor spaces.

Ginger Wicks, the executive director of the Historic Park City Alliance, said she hasn’t heard if any businesses are requiring masks for guests, but some mandate them for employees.

From what she’s seeing, about half of guests are wearing masks, Wicks said in an email.

Harklau has the same observation, saying said about half the customers at We Norwegians wear a face covering.

At Dolly’s Bookstore on Main Street, manager Michaela Smith said all employees and about 75% of the shoppers wear a mask at the business. She said not requiring face coverings allows employees to avoid fights with customers.

With the mandate gone, Mary Jane’s, a Main Street boutique, now has a sign that says “Face Masks Appreciated,” rather than required.

About half of the customers wear masks, which are offered at the door, according to manager Maggie Heck.

Another boutique, Indigo Highway, asks people who are unvaccinated to wear masks as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All employees at the Newpark shop are fully vaccinated, according to its website.

“We don’t require it but a lot of our customers do wear masks,” manager Rachel Abbott said. “We do keep a supply of masks handy for anyone who wants them.”

She said there was no resistance from shoppers to wearing a mask when the county mandate was in force.

“Everyone was really cooperative,” Abbott said. “I think we were really lucky here. We didn’t have any pushback on it whatsoever.”

The termination of Summit County’s mask mandate has not affected COVID-19 protocols at ski resorts.

Face coverings are required in indoor settings at Park City Mountain Resort, including in gondolas, restaurants, lodging properties, restroom and retail locations, and on buses. The rules apply to everyone, including guests and employees.

“We required the use of face coverings in indoor settings at the resort as part of our 2021-22 winter season safety protocols,” said Jessica Miller, a spokesperson for PCMR, in a statement. “This requirement was in place prior to Summit County’s mandate. The majority of our guests have been, and continue to be, supportive and cooperative. We appreciate everyone’s efforts to help us stay safe together this season.”

A similar policy is in place at Deer Valley Resort.

“Deer Valley continues to have the same indoor mask requirement in place that we implemented in August 2021 again for both guests and staff,” said Emily Summers, senior communications manager, in an email. “It is well-received for the most part, as our guests understand we have to do everything we can to stay open and offer a full ski season.”

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