SALT LAKE CITY – The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah rose 591 on Tuesday, with another death reported, according to the Utah Department of Health.
Currently, there are an estimated 24,911 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah.
The average continuous number of seven positive days a day is now 950 – the second day in a row, that number was below 1,000, according to the health department. The positive daily test rate for that time period calculated using the “people over people” method is now 13.7%. The average positive seven-day rate calculated using the “test-by-test” method is 6.42%.
There are 272 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 104 in intensive care, state data show. About 75 percent of all beds in intensive care units in Utah are filled Tuesday, including about 79 percent of ICU beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. About 51% of non-ICU hospital beds are also filled, according to state data.
A total of 532,985 vaccines were administered in the state, up from 525,033 on Sunday. Of these, 160,809 are the second dose of vaccine.
The new figures indicate a 0.2% increase in positive cases on Sunday. Of the 2,129,525 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah to date, 17% tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests performed since the beginning of the pandemic is now 3,611,107, up from 9,985 on Sunday. Of these, 4,015 were tests in individuals who had not been previously tested for COVID-19.
The death reported on Tuesday was a man from Salt Lake County who was over 85 years old and was hospitalized when he died.
Tuesday’s total in Utah is 362,347 confirmed cases, with a total of 14,239 hospitalizations and a total of 1,797 deaths from the disease. A total of 335,049 cases of Utah COVID-19 are now estimated to be recovered, state data show.
At a news conference Tuesday morning, Intermountain Healthcare for Infectious Diseases, Dr. Brandon Webb, said that just under 20% of Utah’s adult population has now been vaccinated against COVID-19. This led to some early signs of the population’s immunity to the disease, he said.
“It helps,” Webb said. “It’s very important to see more immune population.”
The mRNA vaccines that are now available have been shown to be effective in generating immunity against COVID-19, including for the UK variant, Webb said. MRNA vaccines are less effective against COVID-19 variants in South Africa and Brazil, which is why it is important to vaccinate as many people as possible now so that these variants do not have the potential to spread widely and become more dominant, Webb said.
Ensuring the continued preservation of masks and social distancing is also as important as ever, as this prevents the spread of variants and becoming more widespread in communities, he added.
“We want to win that race, we want to limit the number of broadcasts in our community,” Webb said.
Webb pointed out that current numbers in Utah COVID-19 are similar to what Utah experienced in October, before a winter increase led to the spread of the disease. Although a seven-day average of nearly 1,000 cases a day is still too high, Webb said the numbers are expected to continue to decline in Utah, especially if people continue to take precautions as they have since at the beginning of the pandemic.
“We are very pleased to see that these (numbers) are declining,” he said.
There is no COVID-19 press conference scheduled for Tuesday. Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah, is expected to provide a COVID-19 update during his monthly news conference with PBS Utah at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Methodology:
Test results now include data from PCR tests and antigen tests. Positive COVID-19 test results are reported to the health department immediately upon 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 ‘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.