SALT LAKE CITY – The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah increased by 422 on Friday, with six more deaths and 40,049 more vaccinations reported, according to the Utah Department of Health.
Four of the deaths occurred before March 1, but are still being investigated by state coroners, the health department said.
The average number of positive cases per day for seven days is now 407, 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 6.9%. The positive test rate per day, averaged over seven days, calculated using the “test on test” method is now 3.4%.
There are now 138 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in Utah, including 46 in intensive care, state data show. About 64% of all beds in intensive care units in Utah are occupied by Friday, including about 67% of the ICU beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals, according to the health department. About 53% of hospital beds outside the ICU in Utah are occupied.
A total of 1,450,263 doses of vaccines were administered in the state, compared to 1,410,214 on Thursday. A total of 948,468 Utahns have already received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 541,293 are fully vaccinated. A total of 1,691,460 doses of vaccine have already been delivered to Utah, state data show.
The new figures indicate an increase of 0.1% in positive cases since Thursday. Of the 2,400,410 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah so far, 16.1% tested positive for COVID-19. The total number of tests conducted since the start of the pandemic has increased to 4,268,946, an increase from 14,258 since Thursday. Of these, 5,761 were tests from people who had not taken the previous test for COVID-19, according to state data.
The six deaths reported on Friday were:
- A woman from Davis County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was a resident of a long-term institution
- A woman from Millard County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when she died
- A man from Salt Lake County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A woman from Salt Lake County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when she died
- A woman from Utah County who was over 85 years old and a resident of a long-term care facility
- A man from Weber County who was over 85 years old and a resident of a long-term care institution
Friday’s total gives Utah 386,550 confirmed cases, with 15,573 hospitalizations and 2,131 deaths from the disease.
Utah House Bill 294, also known as the state’s COVID-19 “final” bill, requires that all state and local Utah health orders related to the pandemic end on the day that the 14-day case rate from Utah state is less than 191 per 100,000 people, the seven-day average use of the COVID-19 intensive care unit is below 15%, and 1,633,000 primary doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been allocated to Utah.
The state is now reaching the benchmark in the first and second metrics. The 14-day case rate is 180.3 on Friday, and the average seven-day use of the ICU COVID-19 in Utah is about 10.3%, according to data from the health department. A total of 920,515 doses of primary vaccines have been allocated to Utah, according to the health department.
Utah leaders provided an update to the COVID-19 pandemic at a news conference on Thursday.
