State health officials reported 1,585 new cases on Sunday, with eight more deaths.
(Rick Bowmer | The Associated Press) James Lennox, an IT technical assistant for the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind, receives the COVID-19 vaccine at the Davis County Legacy Center on Tuesday, January 12, 2021, in Farmington, Utah. Utah has begun vaccinating teachers and school staff across the state. They aim to vaccinate all teachers and school staff by the end of February.
Among COVID-19 hospitals in Utah – places such as the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City and the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray – there are normally a total of 453 intensive care beds available for patients.
Now, the 453 ICU beds in those referral centers are full – and then some. On Sunday, the Utah Department of Health reported that 458 ICU beds were occupied in the state, meaning that coronavirus treatment sites have a capacity of 101.3%.
The percentage of all ICU beds at the state level is also at critical levels, standing at 97.4%, or 515 of the 529 available as of Sunday’s publication date.
On Saturday, Utah broke the record for the number of COVID-19 patients currently in intensive care by 231. That number dropped to 226 on Sunday. As a benchmark, the seven-day period ending Sunday began on January 11. with 188 COVID-19 patients.
As of Sunday, the state had administered 157,170 global doses of COVID-19 vaccine. This number includes 142,368 Utahns who received the first doses and 14,802 Utahns who received both doses.
The fact that the state reported 1,585 cases on Sunday could be interpreted as good news. In the last seven days, 17,838 positive cases have been reported. The 1,585 cases on Sunday are the least reported in those seven days, which included 5,188 on Wednesday and another two days that eclipsed 2,500.
Moreover, 1,585 is the second lowest number of positive cases dating back to the end of December.
The eight deaths reported on Sunday are part of the 101 recorded in the last seven days. The death toll in Utah is 1,493 since the pandemic began. As the number of cases is currently low, eight deaths reported in one day could be considered progress after the week saw a maximum of 27 deaths on Wednesday.
Utah’s seven-day average for positive tests is 2,209 per day, bringing the seven-day average for positive lab tests to 22.6%. This latest figure places Utah in the top five of all 50 states as of Sunday.
The 7,199 tests reported on Sunday bring the total administered to 1,902,260.