SALT LAKE CITY – The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah increased by 591 on Tuesday, with one more death reported, according to the Utah Department of Health.
There are now about 24,911 COVID-19 cases active in Utah.
The continuous average number of positive cases per day for seven days is now 950 – the second consecutive day that number is below 1,000, according to the health department. The rate of positive test per day for that time period calculated using the “people over people” method is now 13.7%. The average seven-day positive test rate calculated using the “test on test” method is 6.42%.
There are 272 patients with COVID-19 currently hospitalized in Utah, including 104 in intensive care, state data show. About 75% of all beds in intensive care units in Utah are occupied on Tuesday, including about 79% of the ICU beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. About 51% of non-ICU hospital beds are also occupied, according to state data.
532,985 vaccines have already been administered in the state, compared to 525,033 on Sunday. Of these, 160,809 are second doses of the vaccine.
The new figures indicate an increase of 0.2% in positive cases since Sunday. Of the 2,129,525 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah so far, 17% have tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests carried out since the pandemic began is now 3,611,107, an increase of 9,985 since Sunday. Of these, 4,015 were tests from people who had not taken the previous test for COVID-19.
The death reported on Tuesday was of a man from Salt Lake County who was over 85 years old and was hospitalized when he died.
Tuesday’s total gives Utah 362,347 confirmed cases, with 14,239 hospitalizations and 1,797 deaths from the disease. A total of 335,049 Utah COVID-19 cases are now estimated to be recovered, state data show.
At a news conference on Tuesday morning, Intermountain Healthcare infectious disease physician Dr. Brandon Webb said that just under 20% of Utah’s adult population has already been vaccinated against COVID-19. This led to some initial signs of population immunity to the disease, he said.
“This is helping,” said Webb. “It is a very important thing to see more of the immune population.”
The mRNA vaccines that are now available have been shown to be effective in generating immunity against COVID-19, including for the UK variant, Webb said. MRNA vaccines are less effective against COVID-19 variants in South Africa and Brazil, so it is important to vaccinate as many people as possible now, so that these variants do not have the opportunity to spread widely and become more dominant, Webb said.
Maintaining masking and social detachment is still as important as before, because it prevents variants from spreading and becoming more prevalent in communities, he added.
“We want to win this race, we want to limit the number of broadcasts in our community,” said Webb.
Webb pointed out that Utah’s current COVID-19 numbers are similar to what Utah experienced in October, before a winter wave led to the spread of the disease. Although a seven-day average close to 1,000 cases per day is still very high, Webb said he expects the numbers to continue to decline in Utah, especially if people continue to take the precautions they have been taking since the pandemic began.
“We are very pleased to see that these (numbers) are falling,” he said.
There is no COVID-19 press conference scheduled for Tuesday. Utah Governor Spencer Cox is expected to provide an update on COVID-19 during his monthly press conference with PBS Utah at 10 am on Thursday.
Methodology:
The test results now include data from PCR tests and antigen tests. Positive results from the COVID-19 test are reported to the health department immediately after they are confirmed, but negative test results can take 24 to 72 hours.
The total number of cases reported by the Utah Department of Health each day includes all cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the Utah outbreak, including those who are infected, those who have recovered from the disease and those who have died.
Recovered cases are defined as anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 three or more weeks ago and has not died.
Referral hospitals are Utah’s 16 hospitals capable of providing the best COVID-19 healthcare.
Deaths reported by the state typically occurred two to seven days before they were reported, according to the health department. Some deaths can be even older, especially if the person is from Utah, but died in another state.
The health department reports deaths from confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases according to the case definition outlined by the State Council and Territorial Epidemiologists. Death counts are subject to change as case investigations are completed.
For deaths reported as deaths from COVID-19, the person would not have died if they did not have COVID-19, according to the health department.
The “people over people” method for the seven-day average positive test rate is calculated by dividing the number of people positive for COVID-19 by the total number of people tested. The “test over test” method is calculated by dividing the total number of positive tests by the total number of tests administered.
The data included in this story mainly reflects the state of Utah as a whole. For more localized data, visit your local health district’s website.
More information about Utah’s health guidance levels is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-health-guidance-levels.
The information is from the Utah Department of Health and coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts. For more information on how the Utah Department of Health compiles and reports COVID-19 data, visit coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts and scroll down to the “Data Notes” section at the bottom of the page.