More than 565,000 Utahns have been fully vaccinated against the corona virus.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Amy Christensen, left, chief nurse specialist care at Intermountain Healthcare, assists in unveiling new artwork by Utah artist Heather Olsen, right, in tribute to primary care health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Monday, April 5, 2021, in Murray.
Editor’s Note: The Salt Lake Tribune offers free access to critical stories about the coronavirus. Sign up for our Top Stories newsletter, sent to your inbox every weekday morning. To support journalism in this way, please donate or become one subscriber
After a typically slow Sunday, the Utah Department of Health reported 173 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday. Only 3,778 tests were administered.
That’s the lowest number of new cases since there were 163 on March 21 – another Sunday.
More than 565,000 Utahns have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus – about 17 percent of the state’s population. And one more death was attributed to COVID-19.
Vaccine Doses Administered Over the Last Day / Total Doses Administered • 2,326 / 1,498,039.
Utahns fully vaccinated • 565,539.
Cases reported in the past day • 173.
Deaths reported in the past day • A: A woman in Utah County between the ages of 65 and 84.
Tests reported in the past day • 2,111 people were tested for the first time. A total of 3,778 people were tested.
Hospital admissions reported in the past day • 121. That is eight less from Sunday. Of those currently hospitalized, 47 are in intensive care units – two more than on Sunday.
Percentage of positive tests • According to the state’s original method, the rate is 8.2%. That is higher than the seven-day average of 7.1%.
The state’s new method counts all test results, including repeated tests from the same person. Monday’s rate was 4.65%, higher than the seven-day average of 3.5%.
[Read more: Utah is changing how it measures the rate of positive COVID-19 tests. Here’s what that means.]
Totals so far • 387,514 cases; 2,133 dead; 15,625 hospital admissions; 2,413,193 people tested.
On Monday, a Utah artist revealed her “thank you” to primary care health workers who battled COVID-19 – a large painting she donated to Intermountain Healthcare.
Heather Olsen, an artist in Riverton, said her painting, entitled ‘Together We Can Do This,’ was the result of meeting doctors and nurses and admiring their sacrifices to save lives during the pandemic.
“You really are heroes,” Olsen told health workers during a disclosure Monday at the Intermountain Transformation Center in Murray. “Every day you change lives and you make a difference. You make the world a better place. “
The painting, a collage of eleven doctors and nurses in action, “is what I can do to say ‘Thank you’,” said Olsen. ‘It’s been huge for me, almost healing in a way. [It] I felt comforted that these people are there and are doing everything they can. “
Prints of the painting will be distributed to hospitals and facilities at Intermountain locations. And health workers are given the opportunity to get personal impressions.
Olsen – inspired by her sister, who is a nurse – started painting pictures of health workers about a year ago when the pandemic started. Her first showed a nurse, wrapped in personal protective equipment, putting on her gloves. (That painting was part of a collection of coronavirus-inspired work by Utah artists curated by The Salt Lake Tribune in April 2020.)
[Read more: How 21 Utah artists created images inspired by the coronavirus]
Although she gave the figure in that painting, and others in subsequent paintings, a common sight, Olsen said, “I had several nurses who came up to me and said, ‘You did me.”
Elizabeth Hyde, an Intermountain intensive care nurse, received one of those paintings from Olsen – who delivered it to her home at a time when Hyde said she was “physically and emotionally exhausted.”
“When she showed up at my door,” said Hyde, “it gave me that boost and reassurance that I am a good nurse, and that I can do this, and that I can help the community with what I do every day.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Intermountain Healthcare unveils new artwork by Utah artist Heather Olsen, as a tribute to primary care health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, at an unveiling Monday, April 5, 2021 in Murray.