SALT LAKE CITY – More than one million Utahns have now received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, government officials announced Wednesday.
A total of 1,013,308 state residents have now received either their first dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or the only dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the Utah Department of Health said in a news release Wednesday.
“This is a milestone that is worth celebrating, and we hope that this number will continue to rise as more and more Utahns choose to be vaccinated,” Uten’s government Spencer Cox said in the release. “The speed with which we were able to vaccinate Utahns is a testament to the hard work and dedication of Utah’s public health system and our nationwide vaccination partners,” he added.
The Department of Health initially reported that about 66% of the population eligible for vaccine now received at least one dose of the vaccine, but later made it clear that only about 44% of the population eligible now it has at least one dose.
According to the Department of Health, Utah’s number of COVID-19 cases increased by 612 on Wednesday, with two more deaths and another 34,814 vaccinations. The Department of Health estimates that there are now 8,975 active COVID-19 cases in Utah.
According to the Department of Health, the current average number of positive cases of seven days at 401 is now. The positive test rate per day for the period calculated using the “people on people” method is now 7.2%. The positive test rate per day for the period calculated using the ‘test over test’ method is now 3.5%.
There are currently 140 COVID-19 patients in the Utah hospital, including 55 in intensive care. About 69% of all intensive care unit beds are now occupied in Utah, including 72% of the ICU beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals, state data shows. About 52% of the non-ICU hospital beds are now inhabited in the state, data from the Department of Health shows.
A total of 1,561,167 vaccine doses were administered in the state, compared to 1,526,353 on Tuesday. In addition to the 1,013,308 Utahns who received at least one dose of vaccine, 599,972 are now considered fully vaccinated, according to the Department of Health. A total of 1,835,670 vaccine doses have been sent to Utah so far.
The new numbers point to a 0.2% increase in positive cases since Tuesday. Of the 2,244,457 people tested so far for COVID-19 in Utah, 16% tested positive for COVID-19. The number data shows that the number of total tests has increased to 4,323,919, up 18,522 since Tuesday. Of these, 7,246 were tests from people who had not been tested for COVID-19 before.
The two deaths reported on Wednesday:
- A Salt Lake County man who was between 45 and 64 years old and was admitted to the hospital when he died
- A Washington County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was not hospitalized when he died
The total Wednesday total gives 388,426 confirmed cases in Utah, with 15,675 hospitalizations and 2,139 total deaths due to the disease. An estimated 377,312 cases in Utah COVID-19 are now considered recovery, according to the Department of Health.
The Utah Endgame Pandemic Bill, formally known as House Bill 294, requires all state and local health orders related to COVID-19 to end on the day Utah reaches the threshold in three key statistics : the 14-day case rate of the state is less than 191 per 100,000 people, the seven-day average use of COVID-19 intensive care unit is below 15%, and 1,633,000 primary doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are awarded to Utah.
As of Wednesday, Utah meets the benchmark in the first two stats, but still has a long way to go to reach the threshold for the third. The state’s case for 14 days is now 178.2 and the average use of the COVID-19 ICU for seven days is 9.4%.
According to health officials, only 992,325 prime doses were awarded to Utah this week. Health officials are expected to reach the 1 633 000 threshold in the second or third week of May.
The award of the prime dose in Utah is updated weekly and differs from the number of people who received one dose of the vaccine, which is updated daily. Since the number of people who received one dose is updated more often than the first dose, it is better than the statistics for the first dose, and the two usually do not match.
Therefore, while the state reported Wednesday that 1,013,308 Utahns received at least one dose of the vaccine, the state’s first dose allocation stands at 992,325 for this week. The first dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, as well as the only dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, are considered primary doses.
The Salt Lake District Council also announced Wednesday that it will not extend the county’s mask mandate to April 10, with a few exceptions. However, Mayor Erin Mendenhall said Salt Lake City’s mask mandate would continue after that date.
