Utah reports less than 200 new COVID-19 cases and one more death

More than 565,000 Utahns have been completely vaccinated against coronavirus.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Amy Christensen, left, assistant chief medical officer at Intermountain Healthcare, helps unveil new Utah artwork, artist Heather Olsen, right, pays tribute to health care workers during the COVID- 19 pandemic, Monday, April 5, 2021, in Murray.

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After a usually slow Sunday, the Utah Department of Health reported 173 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday. Only 3,778 tests were administered.

This is the lowest number of new cases since there were 163 on March 21 – another Sunday.

More than 565,000 Utahns have been completely vaccinated against coronavirus – about 17% of the state’s population. And there was another death attributed to COVID-19.

Last day vaccine doses / total doses administered • 2,326 / 1,498,039.

Utahns fully vaccinated • 565,539.

Cases reported the other day • 173.

Deaths reported last day • One: A Utah woman between the ages of 65 and 84.

Tests reported the other day • 2,111 people were tested for the first time. A total of 3,778 people were tested.

Hospitalizations reported last day • 121. It’s down to eight since Sunday. Of those currently hospitalized, 47 are in intensive care units – two more than on Sunday.

Percentage of positive tests • According to the initial state method, the rate is 8.2%. This is higher than the seven-day average of 7.1%.

The new state method counts all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual. Monday’s rate was 4.65%, higher than the seven-day average of 3.5%.

[Read more: Utah is changing how it measures the rate of positive COVID-19 tests. Here’s what that means.]

Totals so far • 387,514 cases; 2,133 deaths; 15,625 hospitalizations; They tested 2,413,193 people.

On Monday, a Utah artist revealed her “thanks” to frontline health workers who struggled with COVID-19 – a large painting she donated to Intermountain Healthcare.

Heather Olsen, an artist from Riverton, said her painting, “Together We Can Do It,” was the result of meeting doctors and nurses and admiring their sacrifices to save lives during the pandemic.

“You’re a real hero,” Olsen told health workers at a inauguration Monday at the Intermountain Transformation Center in Murray. “Every day you change your life and make a difference. Make the world a better place. ”

The painting, a collage of 11 doctors and nurses in action, is what I can do to say “Thank you,” Olsen said. “It was huge for me, almost healing me in a way. [It] it made me feel comfortable that these people are there and doing everything they can. ”

The fingerprints of the painting will be distributed in hospitals and facilities in the Intermountain locations. And health workers will be given the opportunity to get personal fingerprints.

Olsen – inspired by her sister, who is a nurse – began painting pictures with health workers about a year ago, when the pandemic began. Her first showed a nurse, wrapped in personal protective equipment, putting on her gloves. (The painting was part of a collection of coronavirus-inspired works by Utah artists organized by The Salt Lake Tribune in April 2020.)

[Read more: How 21 Utah artists created images inspired by the coronavirus]

Although he gave the figure in that painting and others in the later paintings, a generic face, Olsen said, “I had a few nurses who came to me and said, ‘You made me.'”

Elizabeth Hyde, a nurse at Intermountain, received one of those paintings from Olsen – who delivered it to her home at a time when Hyde said she was “exhausted, physically and emotionally”.

“When she showed up at my door,” Hyde said, “she gave me that impetus and reassurance that I’m a good nurse and I can do that and I can benefit the community with what I do every day.”

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Intermountain Healthcare unveils new artwork by Utah artist Heather Olsen to pay tribute to frontline health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic during a Monday unveiling, April 5, 2021, in Murray.

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