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More than 30,000 Utahns received coronavirus vaccines on Thursday, as the total number of vaccinations approached one million. And the number of fully vaccinated residents reached nearly 340,000.
However, not all news is good. The Utah Department of Health reported two more deaths and the number of Utahns hospitalized with COVID-19 increased by 17.
Vaccines administered during the past day / total vaccinations • 30,300 / 967,481.
Fully vaccinated Utahns • 339,743.
Cases reported last day • 519.
Deaths reported last day • Two. Both were men from Salt Lake County: one aged between 45 and 64, the other over 85 years old.
Hospitalizations reported last day • 184. That exceeds 17 as of Thursday. Of those currently hospitalized, 66 are in intensive care units, unchanged since Thursday.
Tests reported last day • 5,780 people were tested for the first time. A total of 13,535 people were tested.
Percentage of positive tests • According to the original method of the state, the rate is 9%. This is slightly above the seven-day average of 8.4%.
His new method counts all test results, including repeated tests from the same individual. Friday’s rate is now 3.8%, lower than the seven-day average of 4.02%.
[Read more: Utah is changing how it measures the rate of positive COVID-19 tests. Here’s what that means.]
Total so far • 377,492 cases; 2,017 dead; 15,049 hospitalizations; 2,279,263 people tested.
A Utah front-line doctor said Friday that recent falls in the COVID-19 case count should give Utahns hope, but warned that the coronavirus may not follow the schedules set by political leaders.
“There are no differences between April 9 and April 10: it’s a random date,” Dr. Todd Vento, medical director of Intermountain Healthcare’s infectious disease telecare services, said Friday during the meeting. Intermountain community weekly on Facebook Live.
April 10 is the date Utah lawmakers plan to end statewide mask mandates, in a bill that passed both houses with veto-majority majorities earlier this year. month. Governor Spencer Cox is expected to sign the bill, despite expressing reservations.
“I wouldn’t see April 10 as something different, from my own personal protection and the personal protection of other people,” Vento said. “If I go out in public, I should probably be careful if I go into a place that occupies 100% and I don’t know its ventilation system and people don’t wear masks.”
Cox has also stated that all adult Utahns will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine before April 1st. President Joe Biden announced Thursday, in a nationally televised speech, that he is addressing states that make the vaccine available to all adults before May 1st.
These dates “are very positive signs,” Vento said. The optimistic schedule “reflects the fact that they know the gas pipeline [for vaccines] it has increased quite a bit, ”he said.
Biden’s statement on Thursday – that on July 4 “there are many chances that you, your family and friends, can gather in the back garden or in your neighborhood, grab a kitchen or barbecue and celebrate Valentine’s Day. Independence “- is another optimistic sign, said Vento.
“I thought he said it in a way to put a point of hope, something to shoot,” Vento said. “But also the warning that says, ‘Hey, we’re not out yet.’ … That’s what we’re going to do, but we still have work to do.”
This work, Vento said, includes the vaccine when it is available and continue to wear masks and practice social distancing, even when government rules are removed.
“We all want the answer in black and white,” Vento said. “It simply came to our notice then. This is the real world. This virus has changed a lot and taught us [so much] – unfortunately at the expense of people who get sick and dying and are hospitalized. “