(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Science professor Robert Campos cleans his classroom desks while students return to Highland High School in Salt Lake City on Monday, February 8, 2021.
The number of new cases of COVID-19 remains low in Utah – 651 on Friday, the 13th day in the past two weeks, the number was below 1,000.
However, the state recorded 17 new deaths from the virus, although eight of them occurred before February 5. Hospitalizations and patients in intensive care units also increased slightly on Friday.
Vaccine doses administered the previous day / total doses administered • 22,092 / 682,536.
Number of Utahns who received two doses • 239,877.
Cases reported the previous day • 651.
Deaths reported the day before • 17; eight of them happened before February 5th.
• Nine from Salt Lake County: Two men between 45 and 64 years old; a man and two women, each 65-84; two men and two women, each 85 years old or more.
• Two Utah County residents: a man aged 85 and over and a woman aged 45 to 64.
• Two residents of Weber County: a man and a woman, each aged 85 or older.
• Two men, 45-64 – one from Iron County, one from Tooele County.
• A woman from Uintah County aged 85 or older and a man from Washington County aged 65-84.
Hospitalizations reported the previous day • 231. Increase from 10 on Thursday. Of those currently hospitalized, 94 are in intensive care units – seven more than on Thursday.
Tests reported the day before • 5,498 people were tested for the first time. A total of 15,599 people were tested.
Percentage of positive tests • In the original state method, the rate is 11.8%. This is slightly lower than the 12.3% seven-day average.
His new method counts all test results, including repeated tests from the same individual. Friday’s rate is now 4.2%, lower than the seven-day average of 5.6%.
Totals to date • 370,084 cases; 1,907 deaths; 14,628 hospitalizations; 2,194,674 people tested; 3,781,119 tests performed.
Dr. Mark Briesacher, chief physician at Intermountain Healthcare, said on Friday that he is excited that a third vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson, will be available in Utah as early as next week.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Briesacher said during Intermountain’s weekly COVID-19 community briefing on Facebook Live, is 85% effective in preventing serious cases – those that can lead to hospitalization or death. The Federal Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the emergency use of the new vaccine as early as Saturday.
“Does it prevent serious and critical illnesses? Prevents deaths? The answer to these things is ‘yes’, ”said Briesacher.
“It will be very good for Utah, in general, because it is a simpler vaccine” than the Pfizer or Modern versions now available, said Briesacher. “It is just a single dose. It is stored more easily. This gives us a lot of flexibility to focus on delivering this equitably across the state. “
The prospect of three vaccines available for COVID-19 is a far cry from February 28, 2020 – a year ago this Sunday – when Briesacher attended the state’s first incident command meeting, “all focused on getting ready to accept that first [COVID-19] hamburgers in Utah, ”he said.
“It has been a difficult and challenging year,” said Briesacher. “We are all going to look back and think of it as some of the most challenging times and some of the most rewarding. … And yet we find ourselves in a really great place, where there is a lot of optimism about the future. “