SALT LAKE CITY – The number of COVID-19 cases in Utah rose Wednesday by 658, with two more deaths and 23,904 more vaccines, according to the Utah Department of Health.
The state now estimates that there are 13,444 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah.
According to the health department, the average number of positive cases per day seven days a day is 520. The percentage of positive tests per day for this time period communicated with the “people on people” method is now 8, 6%. The positive seven-day test rate calculated using the “test over test” method is now 4.16%.
There are currently 175 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Utah, including 73 in intensive care, according to state data. Currently, about 71% of all intensive care beds in Utah are occupied, including about 71% of the ICU beds of the state’s 16 reference hospitals. Now, approximately 55% of all non-ICU hospital beds are occupied, according to state data.
A total of 902,391 vaccines have been administered in the state, up from 878,487 on Tuesday. There are now 589,997 Utahns who have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 328,509 state residents have been fully vaccinated. To date, a total of 1,108,275 doses of vaccine have been sent to Utah.
On Tuesday, Governor Spencer Cox’s office announced the administration’s plan to open vaccine eligibility to all Utah adults, regardless of age or medical condition, before 1 p.m. ‘April.
“We anticipate opening vaccine eligibility to all adults in the state on April 1 and it will likely have 1.5 million first doses in the state on April 10,” the Cox spokeswoman Jennifer Napier-Pearce said in a statement Tuesday evening.
The Utah Traffic Administration also announced that it would provide free rates to anyone using traffic to get to an appointment with the vaccine. Any of the UTA traffic modes will be free until June 30 for anyone going to a confirmed COVID-19 vaccination appointment, said the agency.
Wednesday’s new figures indicate a 0.2% increase in positive cases since Tuesday. Of the 2,265,344 people tested so far to detect COVID-19 in Utah, 16.6% tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests conducted since the beginning of the pandemic is now 3,952,437, an increase of 18,159 since Tuesday. Of these, 7,955 were tests of people who had not been tested for COVID-19, according to the health department.
The two deaths reported on Wednesday were a man from Juab County who was between 65 and 84 years old and was hospitalized when he died, as well as a woman from Tooele County who was between 65 and 84 years old and who was a resident of ‘long-term care,’ the health department said.
Wednesday’s total gives Utah 376,327 confirmed cases in total, with 14,986 total hospitalizations and 1,992 deaths from the disease. According to the health department, a total of 360,891 cases of COVID-19 in Utah are considered recovered.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is scheduled to provide an update on the COVID-19 pandemic at a news conference at 11 a.m. Thursday.