SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Department of Health said there were 778 new cases confirmed by COVID-19 and eight more coronavirus-related deaths in the state on Saturday.
The state also administered another 18,383 doses of coronavirus vaccine on Friday.
Overall, this brings Utah to 366,034 confirmed cases, 1,842 deaths and 598,434 vaccines administered since the beginning of the pandemic. The Department of Health says 200,651 of these vaccines were secondary doses.
In the last week, Utah has an average of 779 additional COVID-19 cases per day and a positive test rate of 6.12%. There are currently 242 reported Utahns hospitalized for COVID-19, including 99 in intensive care. This contributes to a state-wide ICU utilization rate of 77%.
One month ago, the state had a continuous seven-day average of 1,924 cases a day and 551 people were hospitalized.
Saturday’s numbers come with 19,646 results of additional tests.
The deaths announced in Saturday’s report include:
- A woman in Salt Lake County over the age of 85 who was not hospitalized when she died
- Two men from Salt Lake County between the ages of 65 and 85 who were hospitalized when they died
- A 46-year-old man from Salt Lake County who was hospitalized
- A woman from Salt Lake County, aged 65 to 84, who was hospitalized
- A Utah County woman between the ages of 45 and 64 who was hospitalized
- A woman from Weber County over the age of 85 who was hospitalized
- A woman from Weber County, aged between 65 and 84, who was hospitalized
Salt Lake County now accounts for nearly 40% of coronavirus-related deaths in Utah.
There is no coronavirus press conference scheduled for the weekend. Governor Spencer Cox addressed the public on Thursday, announcing that Utahns, aged 65 and over, is now eligible to sign up for the coronavirus vaccine.
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 Council of State and Territorial Epidemiology. 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 ‘people over people’ method for the average seven-day positive test rate is calculated by dividing the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 by the total number of people tested. The “test-by-test” method is calculated by dividing the total number of positive tests by the total number of tests administered.
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.