SALT LAKE CITY – After the start of New Year’s Day, the Utah Department of Health’s first report in 2021 shows 5,042 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 25 new deaths in the state.
According to the department, 3,110 of the cases would have been reported on Friday.
With the update, Utah has now seen 281,654 total confirmed cases and 1,212 deaths due to COVID-19 since the pandemic began. According to the Department of Health, 14,900 more Utahns were tested over Thursday’s numbers and that 1,740,903 total Utahns have now been tested. There are currently 487 Utahns in the hospital due to the coronavirus and 11,101 total hospitalizations since the pandemic reached Utah last year.
Over the past week, the state has averaged 2,506 new reported cases per day and a positive test rate of 27.4%.
There is no coronavirus news conference of state leaders scheduled for the weekend. Gary Herbert, who led most of the news conferences in 2020, is stepping down and will be formally replaced by Spencer Cox on Monday.
This story will be updated.
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.
Graham Dudley