SALT LAKE CITY – After taking New Year’s Day off, the Utah Department of Health’s first report in 2021 shows 5,042 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 25 new deaths in the state.
The department says 3,110 of those cases were reported on Friday.
With the update, Utah has now had a total of 281,654 confirmed cases and 1,212 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began. The health department says that an additional 14,900 Utahns have been tested against Thursday’s numbers and that 1,740,903 Utahns have already been tested. There are 487 Utahns currently hospitalized for the coronavirus, and 11,101 hospitalizations in total since the pandemic struck Utah last year.
Last week, the state had an average of 2,506 new cases reported per day and a positive test rate of 27.4%.
There is no press conference on coronavirus by state leaders scheduled for the weekend. Governor Gary Herbert, who led most of the press conferences in 2020, is stepping down and will be formally replaced by Governor-elect Spencer Cox on Monday.
This story will be updated.
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 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.
Graham Dudley