SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Department of Health reported 2,150 new cases confirmed by COVID-19 and 13 new deaths Saturday in the daily publication of updated coronavirus statistics.
Six of those new deaths occurred before Dec. 26, he said, and were added after further investigation. “The coroner’s office conducts thorough investigations of all potential COVID-related deaths,” the department wrote in an e-mail, “(and) these investigations may take several weeks to complete.”
The update brings Utah to 322,252 confirmed total cases and 1,485 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. It is estimated that 56,521 of these cases are currently active.
In the last week, the state has an average of 2,315 new confirmed cases per day and a positive test rate of 24.7%, down from 32.6% a week ago, but still within a range that indicates a high probability of undeclared Community spread.
Currently, 581 Utahns are hospitalized due to COVID-19, including 231 in intensive care. Saturday’s number is 10,460 more people, they have been tested for the virus and about 26,000 new tests have been performed overall, the health department says.
A total of 152,509 doses of the vaccine have now been administered in the state, almost 10,000 more than yesterday.
The health department announced on Friday that it had detected a new variant of COVID-19 in Utah, one found for the first time in the United Kingdom. The variant is thought to be more transmissible and easier to spread than previous iterations of the virus, but there is no evidence that it is more deadly. Health officials currently believe that approved coronavirus vaccines will be effective against the variant.
On Saturday, Utah health officials announced on Twitter they deployed a “strike team” of monoclonal antibodies to long-term care facilities facing coronavirus outbreaks under Governor Spencer Cox. “COVID-19 monoclonal antibodies can block the virus that causes COVID-19 to attach to human cells”, wrote, “Making it more difficult for the virus to reproduce and cause damage”.
Antibodies form naturally in the body of recovered patients, providing some immunity against future infection; Monoclonal antibodies are created in a laboratory to mimic this effect and have been approved by federal agencies as a preventive and COVID-19 treatment.
Department of Health said his strike teams will administer 25 infusions at five different facilities on Saturday.
There is no coronavirus press conference scheduled for the weekend.
The 13 deaths reported on Saturday included:
- A man from Box Elder County, aged 65 to 84, who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A man from Davis County over the age of 85 who was hospitalized when he died
- A Garfield County man between the ages of 65 and 84 who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A man from Salt Lake County between the ages of 65 and 84 who was hospitalized
- A woman in Salt Lake County over the age of 85 who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A man from Sanpete County aged between 65 and 84, who was hospitalized
- A woman in Uintah County over the age of 85 who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A Utah County man between the ages of 65 and 84 who was not hospitalized when he died
- A Utah County man between the ages of 65 and 84 who was hospitalized
- A woman in Utah County over the age of 85 who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A woman from Washington County, aged 65 to 84, who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- Two men in Washington County between the ages of 65 and 84 who were residents of a long-term care facility
This week
- Friday: Another 2,543 COVID-19 cases, 12 deaths reported Friday in Utah
- Thursday: Utah still works through vaccine release hiccups, while state sees 2,742 new COVID-19 cases, 11 deaths
- Wednesday: Another 2,899 COVID-19 cases, 27 deaths reported Wednesday in Utah
- Tuesday: Another 2,146 COVID-19 cases, 26 deaths reported Tuesday in Utah
- months: 1,484 more COVID-19 cases, 4 deaths reported Monday in Utah
Methodology:
Test results now include data from PCR tests and antigen tests. Positive COVID-19 test results are reported to the health department immediately after confirmation, but negative test results cannot be reported for 24 to 72 hours.
The total number of cases reported daily by the Utah Department of Health includes all COVID-19 cases since the onset of the Utah outbreak, including those currently infected, those recovering from the disease, and those who have died.
Recovered cases are defined as anyone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 three or more weeks ago and did not die.
The referral hospitals are the 16 hospitals in Utah with the capacity to provide the best COVID-19 healthcare.
State-reported deaths usually occurred two to seven days before they are reported, according to the health department. Some deaths may come from the back, especially if the person is from Utah but died in another state.
The Department of Health reports both confirmed and probable deaths in the COVID-19 case, as defined by the State Council and Territorial Epidemiologists. The number of deaths may change as case investigations are completed.
For deaths that are reported as COVID-19 deaths, the person would not have died if they did not have COVID-19, according to the health department.
The data included in this story primarily reflects the state of Utah as a whole. For more localized data, visit the local health district website.
More information on Utah health guidance levels is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-health-guidance-levels.
The information comes from the Utah Department of Health and coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts. For more information on how the Utah Department of Health compiles and reports COVID-19 data, visit coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts and scroll down to the “Data Notes” section at the bottom of the page.
Related stories
Graham Dudley