SALT LAKE CITY – According to the Utah Department of Health, COVID-19 cases in Utah jumped 658 on Wednesday, with two more deaths and 23,904 more vaccinations.
The state now estimates that there are 13,444 active COVID-19 cases in Utah.
The moving seven-day average number of positive cases per day now stands at 520, according to the health department. The positive test rate per day for that period reported with the “people over people” method is now 8.6%. The positive test percentage per seven-day daily mean, calculated with the “test over test” method, is now 4.16%.
There are currently 175 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Utah, including 73 in intensive care units, state data shows. About 71% of all intensive care beds in Utah are now occupied, including about 71% of the intensive care beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. About 55% of all non-IC hospital beds are now occupied, state data shows.
A total of 902,391 vaccines were administered in the state, up from 878,487 Tuesday. There are now 589,997 Utahns who have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 328,509 state residents have been fully vaccinated. A total of 1,108,275 vaccine doses have been shipped to Utah so far.
On Tuesday, Governor Spencer Cox’s office announced the government’s plan to qualify for vaccination for every adult in Utah by April 1, regardless of age or medical condition.
“We expect every adult in the state to be eligible for vaccines by April 1 and we will likely have 1.5 million first doses in the state by April 10,” Cox spokesman Jennifer Napier-Pearce said in a statement Tuesday night.
The Utah Transit Authority also announced it would provide free fares to anyone using transit to book a vaccination appointment. All UTA modes of transport are free until June 30 for anyone traveling to a confirmed COVID-19 vaccination appointment, the agency said
Wednesday’s new numbers indicate a 0.2% increase in positive cases since Tuesday. Of the 2,265,344 people tested for COVID-19 so far in Utah, 16.6% tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests conducted since the start of the pandemic now stands at 3,952,437, up from 18,159 since Tuesday. Of those, 7,955 were tests from people who had not previously been tested for COVID-19, according to the health department.
The two deaths reported Wednesday were a Juab County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was hospitalized when he died, as well as a Tooele County woman who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and a was a resident of a long-term care facility, the health department said.
Wednesday’s totals give Utah a total of 376,327 confirmed cases, with 14,986 total hospitalizations and 1,992 total deaths from the disease. According to the health department, a total of 360,891 Utah COVID-19 cases are now considered recovered.
The Utah government, Spencer Cox, will provide a COVID-19 pandemic update at a press conference Thursday at 11 a.m.