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For the second consecutive day, more than 40,000 COVID-19 vaccines were administered in Utah. And the number of people who have been fully vaccinated is now more than 540,000.
At the same time, the Utah Department of Health reported six more deaths due to the coronavirus. All six were patients aged 65 years and older, and four of the deaths occurred before March 1 and were only recently confirmed as COVID-19.
The number of cases in Utah is at the same level as since September, Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, a physician for infectious diseases at Intermountain Healthcare, said Friday. “This is a great place for us to be in Utah right now.”
Vaccine doses administered in the past day / total doses administered • 40,049 / 1,450,263.
Utahns fully vaccinated • 541,293.
Cases reported in the past day • 422.
Deaths reported in the past day • Six.
Salt Lake County reported two deaths: a man and a woman, aged 65-84 years.
Four other counties each reported one death: a 65-84 woman in Davis County, a 65-84 woman in Millard County, an 85-year-old woman in Utah County, and an 85-year-old man in Weber County.
Tests reported in the past day • 5,761 people were tested for the first time. A total of 14,258 people were tested.
Hospitalizations reported in the past day • 138. These are two from Thursday. Of those currently hospitalized, 46 are in intensive care units – four less than Thursday.
Percentage of positive tests • According to the original method of the state, the rate is 7.3%. This is slightly higher than the seven day average of 6.9%.
The state’s new method counts all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual. Friday’s rate was 3.0%, lower than the seven-day average of 3.4%.
[Read more: Utah is changing how it measures the rate of positive COVID-19 tests. Here’s what that means.]
Total to date • 386,550 cases; 2,131 deaths; 15,573 hospitalizations; 2,400,410 people were tested.
“It’s a time to be optimistic,” Stenehjem said. “Our business is going down. They flattened … to the level we had early in the pandemic, around September. Our hospitalization numbers have definitely improved. ”
Health experts are concerned, Stenehjem said during Intermountain’s weekly COVID-19 information session on Facebook Live on Friday that the spring break – and new variants of the coronavirus – could cause a ‘fourth wave’ of cases. Nevertheless, ‘at this stage, an increase in cases may seem different from an increase in November and December,’ Stenehjem said, as fewer older people are likely to become ill because they have been vaccinated against the virus.
Utah is a week away from April 10, the date on which political leaders in Utah ended the mandate for the entire mask.
“There will be no difference between the distribution of the community between April 9 and April 10,” Stenehjem said.
According to the rules of Intermountain, visitors, patients and staff must wear masks – and these rules will remain in force after April 10, Stenehjem said. “We will take off the masks if epidemiology says it’s good,” he said.
Although Governor Cox has signed the bill that the Utah legislature passed ending the mask basket on April 10, he still thinks masks are a good idea. In a memorandum this week, Cox told government officials that they would wear masks in their state offices until May 31.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency also announced Friday that it is making more than $ 17.1 million available to Utah to fund public assistance for the state’s response to COVID-19. The funding was made available after a major disaster statement was issued Sunday.
So far, FEMA has provided a total of $ 108.5 million to Utah for the state’s COVID-19 response. Information on FEMA’s public assistance program is available at www.fema.gov/assistance/public.