SALT LAKE CITY – Utah’s COVID-19 cases increased by 699 on Wednesday, with five more deaths and 27,654 more vaccinations, according to the Utah Department of Health.
Four of the deaths occurred before February 17, but are still being investigated by the state medical examiner’s office, the health department said.
According to the Department of Health, there are 11,550 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah. According to the Department of Health, the average number of positive cases of seven days per day is now at 499. The positive test rate per day for the period using the “people over people” method is now 8.3%. The positive test rate per day of seven days, calculated using the ‘test over test’ method, is now 4.1%.
There are currently 180 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Utah, including 63 in intensive care. About 73% of the beds for intensive care units in Utah are now occupied, including about 75% of the ICU beds in the state’s 16 referral hospitals. About 52% of the non-ICU hospital beds are now inhabited in Utah, according to state data.
A total of 1,054,727 vaccine doses were administered in the state, compared to 1,027,073 on Tuesday. A total of 696,178 Utahns received at least one vaccine dose and 384,054 were completely vaccinated. As of Wednesday, 1,250,160 total vaccine doses have been shipped to Utah.
The new numbers point to a 0.2% increase in positive cases since Tuesday. Of the 2,307,238 people tested so far for COVID-19 in Utah, 16.5% tested positive for the disease. The number of tests since the pandemic began is now 4,049,577, up from 19,892 since Tuesday. Of those, 8,666 were tests of people who had not been tested for COVID-19 before, according to the Department of Health.
The five deaths reported on Wednesday were:
- A Salt Lake County woman who was over 85 and a resident of a long-term care facility
- A man from the province of San Juan who was between 45 and 64 years old and a resident of a long-term care facility
- A woman in Utah County who was between 65 and 84 years old and a resident of a long-term care facility
- A Washington County man who was between 65 and 84 years old and a resident of a long-term care facility
- A Weber County woman who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and a resident of a long-term care facility
The total Wednesday total gives Utah 379,780 total confirmed cases, with 15,198 hospitalizations and 2,037 total deaths due to the disease. A total of 366,193 cases in Utah COVID-19 are estimated to be recovered according to the Department of Health.
The Utah government, Spencer Cox, will deliver a pandemic update at 10 a.m. Thursday during its monthly news conference with PBS Utah.