SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Department of Health said there were 778 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and eight more coronavirus-related deaths in the state.
The state has also administered 18,383 doses of coronavirus vaccine since Friday.
Overall, that brings Utah to 366,034 total confirmed cases, 1,842 deaths and 598,434 vaccines administered since the pandemic began. According to the Department of Health, 200,651 of the vaccines are second-dose.
Last week, Utah averaged 779 more COVID-19 cases per day and a positive test rate of 6.12%. There are currently 242 Utahns admitted to the hospital due to COVID-19, including 99 in intensive care. This contributes to a 77% ICU usage rate across the country.
A month ago, the state had an average of seven days of 1,924 cases per day and 551 people were hospitalized.
Saturday’s numbers come in at 19,646 more test results.
The deaths announced in the report on Saturday include:
- A Salt Lake County woman over the age of 85 who was not admitted to the hospital when she died
- Two men in Salt Lake County between the ages of 65 and 85 who were hospitalized when they died
- A Salt Lake County man between the ages of 46 and 64 who has been hospitalized
- A Salt Lake County woman between the ages of 65 and 84 admitted to hospital
- A Utah County woman between the ages of 45 and 64 admitted to the hospital
- A Weber County woman over 85 admitted to hospital
- A Weber County woman between the ages of 65 and 84 admitted to hospital
Salt Lake County is now responsible for nearly 40% of coronavirus-related deaths in Utah.
There is no coronavirus news conference of state leaders scheduled for the weekend. Government Spencer Cox addressed the public on Thursday, announcing that Utahs 65 and older could now be eligible for the coronavirus vaccine.
Methods:
Test results now contain data from PCR tests and antigen tests. Positive COVID-19 test results are reported to the health department immediately after confirmation, but negative test results may not be reported 24 to 72 hours.
The total number of cases reported each day by the Utah Department of Health includes all cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak of Utah, including those currently infected, those recovering from the disease, and those who have died.
Recovered cases are defined as anyone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 three or more weeks ago and did not die.
Reference hospitals are the 16 Utah hospitals that can provide the best COVID-19 health care.
According to the Department of Health, deaths usually occurred two to seven days before they were reported. Some deaths can come back even further, especially if the person is from Utah but died in another state.
The Department of Health reports both confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths as defined by the case set forth by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. The number of deaths is subject to change as case investigations are completed.
For deaths reported as COVID-19 deaths, the person would not have died if they had not had COVID-19, according to the Department of Health.
The “people over people” method for the average positive test score of seven days is calculated by dividing the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 by the total number of people tested. The “test over test” method is calculated by dividing the total number of positive tests by the total number of tests administered.
Data included in this story primarily reflects the state of Utah as a whole. Visit the website of your local health district for more localized data.
More information on Utah’s health education levels is available at coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-health-guidance-levels.
Information comes from the Utah Department of Health and coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts. For more information on how the Utah Department of Health compiles and reports COVID-19 data, visit coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts and browse to the “Data Notes” section at the bottom of the page.