SALT LAKE CITY – According to the Utah Department of Health, COVID-19 cases in Utah rose by 729 on Wednesday, with seven more deaths and 18,236 vaccinations.
Five of the deaths occurred before Feb. 10, but were still under investigation by state medical inspectors, the health department said. The health department estimates that there are now 15,720 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah.
The rolling seven-day average number of positive cases per day now stands at 590, according to the health department. The positive test rate per day for that period reported with the “people over people” method is now 10.2%. The positive test rate per day over seven days calculated with the “test over test” method is now 4.8%.
There are now 212 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 92 in intensive care units, state data shows. According to the health department, about 72% of all beds in the Utah intensive care unit are now occupied, including about 75% of the intensive care beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. About 53% of non-IC hospital beds are now occupied in Utah.
A total of 759,533 vaccines have been administered in the state, up from 741,297 Tuesday. Of those, 269,368 are second doses of the vaccine, according to state data.
The new numbers indicate an increase of 0.2% in positive cases since Tuesday. Of the 2,222,755 people tested for COVID-19 so far in Utah, 16.8% tested positive for COVID-19. The total number of tests conducted rose to 3,849,589 on Wednesday, an increase of 21,267 from Tuesday. Of those, 8,249 were tests from people who had not previously been tested for COVID-19, the health department reported.
The seven deaths reported Wednesday were:
- A Box Elder County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and lived in a long-term care facility
- A Salt Lake County man who was between the ages of 45 and 64 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 45 and 64 and was hospitalized when she died
- 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 who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was not hospitalized when he died
- A Washington County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and lived in a long-term care facility
One death of an Iron County man reported Monday was pulled from the total COVID-19 deaths, health officials said. UDOH has not disclosed why the reported death was removed from the count.
Wednesday’s totals give Utah a total of 372,708 confirmed cases, with 14,783 total hospitalizations and 1,955 total deaths from the disease. In total, an estimated 355,033 Utah COVID-19 cases are now being recovered, the health department reports.
The Utah government, Spencer Cox, is scheduled to release its weekly pandemic update Thursday at 11 a.m., according to his office.