SALT LAKE CITY – The average number of confirmed cases dropped again slightly after the Utah Department of Health released its daily COVID-19 report on Saturday.
Nevertheless, health experts warned earlier this week of a possible surge after Super Sunday events.
The health department reported 1,211 new cases on Saturday, as well as five more deaths caused by COVID-19, including three women and two men, all but one older than 65 years.
The total number of people in Utah who have contracted the disease since its rise at the end of 2019 is 353,700. In addition, it killed 1,733 people in Utah.
The average number of cases per day of seven days is 1,183, with an average percentage of positive tests at 16.2%, compared to 16.3% on Friday and 18% a week ago.
There are 335 people admitted to the hospital, which according to the state health department was admitted to the hospital last week according to 349. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 13,828 people have been admitted to Utah. Hospitals hovered dangerously close to or near capacity during December and much of January, and according to statistics available online at coronavirus.utah.gov, it is still about 80% full.
The state tested 2,070,190 people for the new coronavirus, which has a high transmission rate across the country, except for two provinces where the spread is low – Piute and Daggett provinces.
A mandate for a state-wide mask remains in force, in public and wherever social distance is not possible.
The Utah government, Spencer Cox, on Thursday announced what follows for the state’s vaccination plan. He said the fitness at Utahns 65 and older, as well as anyone with a variety of health conditions, will be available on March 1st.
He said he hopes everyone will get the COVID-19 vaccine by the summer.
So far, 404,085 people in Utah have received vaccinations against the unbridled disease, including 21,204 since the health department’s report, which oversees vaccination efforts across the state, on Friday.
In addition to wearing two masks, or being upgraded to an N95 or KN95 mask, health officials have also warned to meet with someone outside the home at Super Bowl parties this weekend. The more contagious variants of COVID-19 are circulating in Utah, making the situation somewhat more risky for anyone coming along.
A third confirmed case of the SARS-CoV-2 variant in the UK was announced in Utah earlier this week, although officials believe there were more. The state health department is currently conducting genetic sequencing to identify the variants of the virus on only 10% of the positive test results.
New deaths from COVID-19 reported on Saturday include:
- A Salt Lake County woman over the age of 85 who was not hospitalized at the time of her death.
- A Tooele County woman between the ages of 45 and 64 who was a long-term resident.
- A Millard County woman over the age of 85 who was not admitted to the hospital.
- A man aged 65 and 84 in Weber County admitted to hospital.
- A man between 65 and 84 in Uintah County who has been admitted to the hospital.
New COVID-19 cases reported by the health district on Saturday:
- Salt Lake County, 417
- Utah County, 248
- Davis County, 172
- Southwest Utah, 117
- Weber-Morgan, 79
- Bear River, 79
- Tooele County, 26
- Summit County, 25
- Wasatch County, 15
- Central Utah, 14
- TriCounty (Uinta-kom), 14
- Southeast Utah, 6
- San Juan County, 3