SALT LAKE CITY – The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah increased by 591 on Tuesday, and one more death has been reported, according to the Utah Department of Health.
There are now an estimated 24,911 active COVID-19 cases in Utah.
The rolling seven-day average number of positive cases per day is now at 950 – the second day in a row, that number was below 1,000, according to the health department. The positive test rate per day for that period, calculated using the “people over people” method, is now 13.7%. The seven-day mean positive test rate, calculated by the “test over test” method, is 6.42%.
There are currently 272 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Utah, including 104 in intensive care units, state data shows. About 75% of all intensive care beds in Utah are occupied on Tuesday, including about 79% of the intensive care beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. According to state data, about 51% of non-IC hospital beds are also filled.
A total of 532,985 vaccines were administered in the state, compared to 525,033 on Sunday. Of these, 160,809 are second doses of the vaccine.
The new numbers indicate an increase of 0.2% in positive cases since Sunday. Of the 2,129,525 people tested for COVID-19 so far in Utah, 17% have tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests conducted since the start of the pandemic is now 3,611,107, up from 9,985 since Sunday. Of those, 4,015 were tests from people who had not previously been tested for COVID-19.
The death reported Tuesday was a Salt Lake County man over the age of 85 who was hospitalized when he died.
Tuesday’s totals give Utah 362,347 total confirmed cases, with 14,239 total hospitalizations and 1,797 total deaths from the disease. A total of 335,049 Utah COVID-19 cases are now estimated to be recovered, state data shows.
At a press conference Tuesday morning, Dr. Brandon Webb, infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare, that just under 20% of Utah’s adult population has now been vaccinated against COVID-19. That has led to some early signs of the population’s immunity to the disease, he said.
“It helps,” Webb said. “It is very important to make more of the population immune.”
The mRNA vaccines now available have been shown to be effective in generating immunity to COVID-19, including for the variant in the United Kingdom, Webb said. The mRNA vaccines are less effective against the variants of COVID-19 in South Africa and Brazil, so it is important to vaccinate as many people as possible now so that those variants don’t have a chance to spread widely and become more dominant. , Webb said.
Making sure you continue to wear masks and distance yourself socially is also still as important as ever, as that hinders the spread of the variants and is more common in communities, he added.
“We want to win that race, we want to limit the number of broadcasts in our community,” Webb said.
Webb pointed out that the current Utah COVID-19 numbers are similar to what Utah experienced in October, before a winter surge led to skyrocketing spread of the disease. While a seven-day average of nearly 1,000 cases per day is still too high, Webb said he expects the numbers to continue to decline in Utah, especially if people continue to take precautions as they have since the start of the pandemic.
“We are very happy to see these (numbers) come down,” he said.
There is no press conference on COVID-19 scheduled for Tuesday. The Utah government, Spencer Cox, is expected to provide a COVID-19 update during its monthly press conference with PBS Utah on Thursday at 10 a.m.
Methodology:
The test results now include data from PCR tests and antigen tests. Positive COVID-19 test results will be reported to the health department immediately upon confirmation, but negative test results may not be reported for 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 start of the Utah outbreak, including those currently infected, those who have recovered from the disease, and those who are passed away.
Recovered cases are defined as anyone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 three or more weeks ago and has not died.
Referral hospitals are the 16 hospitals in Utah that can provide the best COVID-19 healthcare.
Deaths reported by the state usually occurred two to seven days before reporting, according to the health department. Some deaths can be even further back, especially if the person is from Utah but died in another state.
The health department reports both confirmed and probable deaths from COVID-19 according to the case definition set forth by the Council of State and territorial epidemiologists. Death rates are subject to change as the investigation of the case is completed.
For deaths reported as COVID-19 deaths, the person would not have died if they had not had COVID-19, according to the health department.
The “people over people” method for the seven-day mean positive test rate is calculated by dividing the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 by the total number of people tested. The “test over test” method is calculated by dividing the total number of positive tests by the total number of tests administered.
The data in this story primarily reflects the state of Utah as a whole. Visit your local health district website for more localized information.
More information about Utah’s health guidelines is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-health-guidance-levels.
Information is from the Utah Department of Health and coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts. For more information on how the Utah Department of Health collects 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.