SALT LAKE CITY – As Utah enters the final hours at the end of the day Friday before a statewide mask mandate expires, the state’s COVID-19 cases have increased by 444, with nine additional deaths and 46,995 vaccinations, according to the Utah Department of Health.
As outlined in Utah House Bill 294, also known as the pandemic “end game” law, after Friday, masks are no longer needed in most settings. Masks are still required in elementary schools, at gatherings of 50 or more people, at private companies that still need them, and in a limited number of other settings. Grand County and Salt Lake City have also chosen to maintain mask mandates.
Health officials urged people to continue wearing masks after the mandate has been lifted.
“Until more people have the opportunity to get vaccinated, we are urging people to continue wearing masks in public places and around those who have not been vaccinated,” said health department director Richard Saunders in a press release on Friday. “We have come this far and are almost back to normal. We just ask for patience and cooperation.”
According to the health department, there are an estimated 8,876 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah. The moving seven-day average number of positive cases per day now stands at 402, according to the health department. The positive test rate per day for that period, calculated with the “people over people” method, is now 7%. The positive test rate per day for that period, calculated with the “test over test” method, is now 3.4%.
There are now 140 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 55 in intensive care units, state data shows. According to state data, about 70% of the beds in the Utah intensive care unit are occupied, including about 72% of the intensive care beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. About 54% of non-IC hospital beds are occupied in Utah.
A total of 1,650,850 vaccine doses have been administered in the state, up from 1,603,855 Thursday. In total, 1,068,003 Utahns have now received at least one dose of vaccine, while 649,354 are now fully vaccinated. A total of 1,919,610 vaccine doses have been shipped to the state so far.
The new numbers indicate an increase of 0.1% in positive cases since Thursday. Of the 2,436,569 people tested for COVID-19 so far in Utah, 16% have tested positive for COVID-19. The number of tests conducted since the start of the pandemic now stands at 4,352,241, up from 12,293 since Thursday. Of those, 5,264 were tests from people who had not previously been tested for COVID-19.
The nine deaths reported Friday were:
- A Cache County man over the age of 85 who was not hospitalized when he died
- A Davis County man over the age of 85 living in a long-term care facility
- A Davis County woman over the age of 85 living in a long-term care facility
- A Salt Lake County woman who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and lived in a long-term care facility
- A Salt Lake County woman over the age of 85 living in a long-term care facility
- A Salt Lake County woman who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was not hospitalized when she died
- A Salt Lake County man over the age of 85 who was not hospitalized when he died
- A Salt Lake County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was not hospitalized when he died
- A woman from Weber County who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and lived in a long-term care facility
Eight of the deaths occurred before March 18, but were still under investigation by state medical inspectors, the health department said. A death of a Salt Lake County woman previously reported Feb. 21 has been removed from the total count after further investigation, health officials said.
Friday’s totals give Utah a total of 389,353 confirmed cases, with 15,728 total hospitalizations and 2,157 total deaths from the disease. According to the health department, an estimated 378,320 Utah COVID-19 cases are now considered recovered.
There is no press conference on COVID-19 scheduled for this week.
In addition to the statewide mask mandate ending, HB294 also requires all state and local health orders related to COVID-19 to end on the day Utah hits the threshold in three key metrics: The state’s 14-day case is less than 191 per 100,000 people, the seven-day average of COVID-19 intensive care unit use is less than 15%, and 1,633,000 prime doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been assigned to Utah.
Friday, the state’s 14-day rate of cases per 100,000 people is now 176.5, and the COVID-19 ICU use average is about 9.9%, according to state data. Utah has a long way to go to meet the primary vaccine dose allocation threshold: 992,325 primary doses have been allocated to Utah as of this week. It is expected to exceed 1,633,000 by the second or third week of May, health officials say.
The first dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, as well as the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, are considered prime doses.
Since the primary dose assignment of the COVID-19 vaccine is updated only once per week, the number of people who have received one vaccine dose often exceeds the primary dose assignment as it is updated every day on the coronavirus website of the state. While the state reported Friday that 1,068,003 Utahns have received at least one dose of the vaccine, the primary dose allocation for this week remains at 992,325.