SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Department of Health on Saturday reported 2,150 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 13 new deaths in the daily release of coronavirus statistics.
Six of the new deaths occurred before Dec. 26, he said, and were added after further investigation. “The medical examiner’s office is conducting thorough investigations into all possible COVID – related deaths,” the department wrote in an email, “(and) these investigations may take several weeks to complete.”
The update brings Utah to 322,252 total confirmed cases and 1,485 deaths since the pandemic began. It is estimated that 56,521 of these cases are currently active.
Over the past week, the state has averaged 2,315 new confirmed cases per day and a positive test rate of 24.7%, down from 32.6% a week ago, but still within a range indicating a high probability of under-reported distribution of the community.
Currently, 581 Utahns are hospitalized due to COVID-19, including 231 in intensive care. There were 10,460 people tested for the virus on Saturday, and about 26,000 new tests were done in general, the health department said.
A total of 152,509 vaccine doses have now been administered in the state, almost 10,000 more than yesterday.
The Department of Health announced on Friday that it has detected a new variant of COVID-19 in Utah, one first found in the United Kingdom. It is suspected that the variant is more transmissible and can be more easily spread than previous repeats of the virus that it is more deadly. Health officials currently believe that the approved coronavirus vaccines will be effective against the variant.
On Saturday, Utah health officials announced on Twitter they have deployed a monoclonal antibody ” strike team ” in long-term care institutions experiencing coronavirus outbreaks led by Spencer Cox. “Monoclonal antibodies to COVID-19 can block the virus that causes COVID-19 to attach to human cells,” they said. wrote, “which makes it more difficult for the virus to reproduce and cause damage.”
Antibodies naturally form in the bodies of recovered patients, providing some immunity to future infection; monoclonal antibodies are created in a laboratory to mimic this effect and have been approved by federal agencies as a preventative and treatment for COVID-19.
The health department said his strike teams administered 25 infusions at five different facilities on Saturday.
There is no coronavirus news conference of state leaders scheduled for the weekend.
The 13 deaths reported on Saturday include:
- A Box Elder County man aged between 65 and 84 who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A Davis County man over 85 admitted to hospital after death
- A Garfield County man between 65 and 84 who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A Salt Lake County man between the ages of 65 and 84 admitted to hospital
- A Salt Lake County woman over the age of 85 who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A man in Sanpete province between 65 and 84 admitted to hospital
- A woman from Uintah County over the age of 85 who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A 65-year-old man in Utah County who was not admitted to the hospital when he died
- A 65-year-old man in Utah County admitted to hospital
- A Utah County woman over 85 who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- A woman from Washington County between the ages of 65 and 84, who was a resident of a long-term care facility
- Two Washington County men between the ages of 65 and 84 who were residents of a long-term care facility
This week
- Friday: 2,543 more COVID-19 cases, 12 deaths reported in Utah Friday
- Thursday: Utah still works by vaccinating as state sees 2,742 new COVID-19 cases, 11 deaths
- Wednesday: 2899 more COVID-19 cases, 27 deaths reported in Utah on Wednesday
- Tuesday: Another 2,146 COVID-19 cases, 26 deaths reported in Utah on Tuesday
- Monday: 1,484 more COVID-19 cases, 4 deaths reported in Utah on Monday
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 according to the definition of the case set out 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.
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.
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Graham Dudley