SALT LAKE CITY – The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah increased by 699 on Wednesday, with five more deaths and 27,654 more vaccinations reported, according to the Utah Department of Health.
Four of the deaths occurred before February 17, but were still being investigated by the state’s medical examiner, the health department said.
The health department now estimates that there are 11,550 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah. The continuous average number of positive cases per day for seven days is now 499, according to the health department. The rate of positive test per day for that period of time reported with the “people over people” method is now 8.3%. The positive test rate per day, averaged over seven days calculated using the “test over test” method is now 4.1%.
There are 180 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 63 in intensive care, state data show. About 73% of the beds in the intensive care unit in Utah are occupied, including about 75% of the ICU beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. About 52% of hospital beds outside the ICU are now occupied in Utah, state data show.
1,054,727 vaccines have already been administered in the state, compared to 1,027,073 on Tuesday. A total of 696,178 Utahns received at least one dose of vaccine and 384,054 were fully vaccinated. On Wednesday, 1,250,160 total doses of the vaccine were sent to Utah.
The new figures indicate an increase of 0.2% in positive cases since Tuesday. Of the 2,307,238 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah so far, 16.5% tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests carried out since the pandemic began is now 4,049,577, an increase of 19,892 since Tuesday. Of these, 8,666 were tests from people who had not been tested for COVID-19, according to the health department.
The five deaths reported on Wednesday were:
- A woman from Salt Lake County who was over 85 years old and was a resident of a long-term institution
- A man from San Juan County who was between 45 and 64 years old and was a resident of a long-term institution
- A woman from Utah County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was a resident of a long-term institution
- A man from Washington County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was a resident of a long-term institution
- A woman from Weber County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was a resident of a long-term institution
Wednesday’s totals give Utah 379,780 confirmed cases, with 15,198 hospitalizations and 2,037 deaths from the disease. A total of 366,193 Utah COVID-19 cases are now estimated to be recovered, according to the health department.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox is scheduled to provide an update on the pandemic at 10 am on Thursday during his monthly press conference with PBS Utah.