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For the second day in a row, more than 40,000 COVID-19 vaccines were given in Utah. And the number of those completely vaccinated now exceeds 540,000.
At the same time, the Utah Department of Health reported six more coronavirus deaths. All six were patients aged 65 years and over, and four of the deaths occurred before March 1 and were recently confirmed to be related to COVID-19.
The number of cases in Utah has risen to unprecedented levels since September, Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare, said Friday. “This is a good place to be in Utah right now.”
Last day vaccine doses / total doses administered • 40,049 / 1,450,263.
Utahns fully vaccinated • 541,293.
Cases reported the other day • 422.
Deaths reported last day • Six.
Salt Lake County reported two deaths: a man and a woman, each aged between 65 and 84.
Four other counties each reported one death: a 65-84 woman in Davis County, a 65-84 woman in Millard County, an 85-year-old woman in Utah County, and an 85-year-old man in Weber County.
Tests reported the other day • 5,761 people were tested for the first time. A total of 14,258 people were tested.
Hospitalizations reported last day • 138. That’s up to two on Thursday. Of those currently hospitalized, 46 are in intensive care units – four fewer than on Thursday.
Percentage of positive tests • According to the initial state method, the rate is 7.3%. It is slightly higher than the seven-day average of 6.9%.
The new state method counts all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual. Friday’s rate was 3.0%, lower than the seven-day average of 3.4%.
[Read more: Utah is changing how it measures the rate of positive COVID-19 tests. Here’s what that means.]
Totals so far • 386,550 cases; 2,131 deaths; 15,573 hospitalizations; 2,400,410 people tested.
“It’s time to be optimistic,” Stenehjem said. “Our cases are declining. They paid … back to the level we had at the beginning of the pandemic, around September. Our number of hospitalizations has certainly improved. ”
Health experts are concerned, Stenehjem said on Friday at the weekly COVID-19 community meeting on Intermountain on Facebook Live, that the spring break – and new variants of the coronavirus – could cause a “fourth wave” of cases. Even so, “at this time, an increase in cases may seem different from an increase in November and December,” Stenehjem said, because older people are less likely to get sick because they have been vaccinated against the virus.
Utah is a week away from April 10, the date when Utah’s political leaders decided to end their state-run mask, but Stenehjem advised Utahns to wear masks and practice social distancing in public.
“There will be no difference in community transmission between April 9 and April 10,” Stenehjem said.
Intermountain rules require visitors, patients and staff to wear masks – and those rules will remain in effect after April 10, Stenehjem said. We’ll take off our masks when epidemiology tells us it’s okay to do so, he said.
Even though Governor Cox signed the bill passed by the Utah legislature that ends his term on April 10, he still thinks masks are a good idea. In a weekly note, Cox told state employees that they would wear masks in their state offices until May 31.
Also Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that it will provide Utah with more than $ 17.1 million in additional public assistance funding for the state’s response to COVID-19. Funding was made available following a major disaster statement released on Sunday.
To date, FEMA has provided Utah with a total of $ 108.5 million in aid for COVID-19’s response. Information about FEMA’s public assistance program is available at www.fema.gov/assistance/public.