SALT LAKE CITY – Utah’s number of COVID-19 cases increased by 901 on Wednesday, with ten more deaths reported, according to the Utah Department of Health.
Six of the deaths occurred last month but are still being investigated by the state medical examiner’s office, the health department said. The single death, Tuesday, reported that a man over the age of 85 who was admitted to hospital when he died had been removed from the total death toll.
The Department of Health now estimates that there are 22,973 active cases of COVID-19 in the state. According to the Department of Health, the average number of positive cases of seven days per day is now at 845. The positive test rate per day for the period reported according to the “people over people” method is now 13.5%. The rolling average positive test rate reported using the ‘test over test’ method is now 6.1%.
There are now 263 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 99 in intensive care. This is the first time Utah has had fewer than 100 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units since October.
About 72% of all ICT hospital beds in Utah were occupied on Wednesday, including about 77% of ICU beds in the 16 referral hospitals in the state, according to the Department of Health. About 49% of the non-ICU hospital beds are now inhabited in Utah.
A total of 551,068 vaccines were administered in the state, up from 532,985 on Tuesday. Of these, 173,925 are second doses of the vaccine.
The new numbers point to a 0.2% increase in positive cases since Tuesday. Of the 2,136,588 people tested so far for COVID-19 in Utah, 17.1% tested positive for COVID-19. The number of tests conducted since the start of the pandemic has now increased to 3,631,393 – an increase of 20,286 since Tuesday. Of these, 7,063 were tests of people who had not previously been tested for COVID-19.
The ten deaths reported on Wednesday were:
- A Cache County woman who was between 65 and 84 and was not hospitalized when she died
- A Carbon County man who was between 65 and 84 years old and was admitted to hospital when he died
- Two men in Davis County who were over 85 and residents of long-term care facilities
- A Salt Lake County woman who was between 45 and 64 years old and was not admitted to the hospital when she died
- A Salt Lake County woman who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when she died
- A Salt Lake County man who was between the ages of 44 and 65 and was not hospitalized when he died
- A Utah County man who was between 65 and 84 and was not hospitalized when he died
- A Washington County man over the age of 85 who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A Washington County woman who was over 85 and a resident of a long-term care facility
Out of Wednesday’s total, 363,248 cases were confirmed in Utah, with 14,294 hospitalizations and 1,806 total deaths due to the disease. An estimated 338,469 Utah COVID-19 cases are now considered recovery, the Department of Health reported.
There is no COVID-19 news conference scheduled for Wednesday. The Utah government, Spencer Cox, is expected to deliver an update to COVID-19 at 10:00 a.m. Thursday during its monthly news conference with PBS Utah.
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.
According to the Department of Health, as well as likely COVID-19 deaths are confirmed as defined by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. The death rates could 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.