With Super Bowl LV set for Sunday, Utah health experts are asking people — whether they’re rooting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Kansas City Chiefs — to do it safely and avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
“I don’t know if I, personally, could take another surge,” Dr. Angela Dunn, the state’s epidemiologist, told reporters Friday.
Dunn’s advice is simple: “Have Super Bowl parties virtually, or with people who live in your household.”
“I don’t think the message has changed,” agreed Dr. Petronella Adomako, infectious diseases physician at Ogden’s McKay-Dee Hospital, speaking during Intermountain Healthcare’s weekly community briefing on Facebook Live.
“We still discourage people from attending live gatherings,” Adomako said. “We would prefer that you stay at home with your nuclear family and watch the Super Bowl game.”
Though case counts and hospitalizations are down, and “the numbers look awesome,” Dunn said, “our hospitals are still 80% full. We are at risk for another surge. We saw it in the U.K. and other countries. We know those variants are here, and we know how to protect ourselves — avoiding large gatherings, wearing masks, physical distancing.”
Super Bowl LV airs live from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., starting at 4:30 p.m. Mountain time, on CBS — KUTV, Ch. 2, in Utah. The pregame show starts at noon.
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