SALT LAKE CITY – The number of positive COVID-19 tests in Utah has increased slightly over the weekend, but the prevalence of the disease is lower than in months.
The percentage of positive tests had declined since January, but increased slightly on Sunday, the Utah Department of Health reported, with 6.3% of tests on Sunday resulting in positive diagnoses. The percentage reached 6.12% on Saturday.
The health department announced a further 701 COVID-19 cases, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the state to 366,735 since March last year. Nearly 2.2 million people have been tested a total of 3.7 million times, as tests are given after possible exposure to the virus and then given again after periods of quarantine or isolation.
Another 9,123 people in Utah received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday. And according to the health department, the state has administered a total of 607,557 doses of vaccine, including 205,388 people who have now received two doses.
There are currently 241 people being treated in hospitals across the state for complications caused by COVID-19. There was one fewer person hospitalized than reported Saturday, and 14 fewer than Friday’s count, health department statistics show.
Since the pandemic first hit Utah in March, 14,445 people – or about 5% of all COVID-19 cases in Utah – have been hospitalized with the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2. Of those, nearly 30% are over the age of 85, and another nearly 20% are people between the ages of 65 and 84, the health department said.
Only 2% of hospital cases, approximately 800 people, have required the use of a ventilator while on COVID-19 treatment.
Hospital admissions have only recently fallen below the 77% usage warning. Sunday it was 76%. The higher the number, the fewer beds in the intensive care unit are available, but it also leads to a shortage of qualified and patient care personnel.
For months, Utah hospitals have been operating above those potentially dangerous thresholds where health officials said tough decisions had to be made.
A drop in hospital admissions is likely to be followed by a drop in deaths from COVID-19, although it may take weeks to see the correlation.
Another 10 COVID-19 deaths, seven of which occurred before Feb. 1, were reported by the health department on Sunday. In Utah, 1,852 people have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
The deaths reported on Sunday include:
- A Davis County woman aged 65 to 84 who was hospitalized when she died.
- A Davis County man, 65-84, who lived in a long-term care facility.
- An Iron County man, 65-84, who was not hospitalized.
- A Sevier County woman over the age of 85 living in a long-term care facility.
- A Salt Lake County woman, 65-84, living in a long-term care facility.
- A Salt Lake County man, 65-84, a resident of a long-term care facility.
- A Salt Lake County woman, 65-84, hospitalized.
- A Utah County man, 65-84, a resident of a long-term care facility.
- A Utah County man over the age of 85, not hospitalized.
- A Utah County man, 65-84, admitted to the hospital.