SALT LAKE CITY – More than a million Utahns have now received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, state officials said Wednesday.
A total of 1,013,308 residents now receive either their first dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the only dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the Utah Department of Health said in a press release Wednesday.
“This is a milestone worth celebrating and we hope that this number will continue to grow as more Utahns choose to get vaccinated,” Utah Governor Spencer Cox said in a statement. The speed with which we have managed to vaccinate Utahns is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the Utah public health system and our statewide vaccination partners, he added.
The Department of Health initially reported that about 66% of the vaccine-eligible population now received at least one dose of vaccine, but later clarified that only about 44% of the eligible population now has at least one dose.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah rose 612 on Wednesday, with two more deaths and 34,814 reported vaccinations, according to the health department. The Department of Health estimates that there are now 8,975 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah.
The average continuous number of seven positive days a day is now 401, according to the health department. The positive daily test rate for that time period calculated using the “people over people” method is now 7.2%. The positive daily test rate for that time period calculated using the “test over test” method is now 3.5%.
There are 140 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 55 in intensive care, state data show. About 69 percent of all intensive care unit beds are now occupied in Utah, including about 72 percent of ICU beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals, state data show. About 52% of non-ICU hospital beds are now occupied in the state, health department data show.
A total of 1,561,167 doses of vaccine were administered in the state, up from 1,526,353 on Tuesday. In addition to the 1,013,308 Utahns who received at least one dose of vaccine, 599,972 are now considered fully vaccinated, according to the health department. A total of 1,835,670 doses of vaccine have been shipped to Utah so far.
The new figures indicate a 0.2% increase in positive cases on Tuesday. Of the 2,424,457 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah to date, 16% tested positive for COVID-19. The total number of tests performed increased to 4,323,919, increasing by 18,522 on Tuesday, state data show. Of these, 7,246 were tested in individuals who had not been previously tested for COVID-19.
The two deaths reported on Wednesday were:
- A man from Salt Lake County who was between 45 and 64 years old and was hospitalized when he died
- A man from Washington County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was not hospitalized when he died
Wednesday’s total provides Utah with 388,426 confirmed cases in total, with 15,675 total hospitalizations and 2,139 total deaths from the disease. An estimated 377,312 cases of COVID-19 in Utah are now considered recovered, according to the health department.
Utah’s “endgame” pandemic bill, officially known as House Bill 294, requires that all state and local health orders related to COVID-19 end on the day Utah reaches the threshold in three key values: the rate of cases of 14 days of the state is less than 191 per 100,000 people, the seven-day average use of the COVID-19 intensive care unit is below 15%, and 1,633,000 prime doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been allocated in Utah.
As of Wednesday, Utah meets the benchmark in the first two values, but it still has a long way to go to reach the threshold for the third. The state’s 14-day case rate is now 178.2, and the average seven-day use of COUID-19 is 9.4%.
Only 992,325 prime doses have been allocated in Utah since this week, according to health officials. It is expected to reach the 1,633,000 threshold in the second or third week of May, health officials say.
The allocation of the first dose in Utah is updated weekly and differs from the number of people who received a dose of vaccine, which is updated daily. Because the number of people who received a dose is updated more frequently than the allocation of the first dose, it becomes ahead of the statistics for the allocation of the first dose, and the two often do not match.
Therefore, while the state reported on Wednesday that 1,013,308 Utahns received at least one dose of vaccine, the primary state dose allocation amounts to 992,325 for this week. The first dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, as well as the single dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, are considered primary doses.
Also on Wednesday, the Salt Lake County Council announced that it will not extend the county’s mask mandate after April 10, with some exceptions. However, Salt Lake City’s masked tenure will continue after that date, said Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
