FILE PHOTO: a laboratory expert takes a covid-19 swab test
The Utah Department of Health announcement Tuesday of 24 new COVID deaths in Utah since Monday is the most reported in one day since Feb. 23 and one of the highest since the start of the pandemic. Ten of the deaths happened before Feb. 8.
The Tuesday report includes the death of a man from Box Elder County 65-84 years of age who was hospitalized at the time of death. It is the 229th COVID death in northern Utah.
Since the start of the pandemic the state has recorded 924,891 positive coronavirus cases. The total northern Utah case count has reached more than 51,000 while over 2,000 in the district have been hospitalized during the pandemic. Exactly 100 new cases were detected in Utah since Monday.
While the state’s COVID deaths are mounting, cases and hospitalizations are dropping.
The Tuesday report from the Utah State Department of Health (UDOH) indicates 238 Utahns are hospitalized with coronavirus, 23 fewer than Monday. Also, 50 of those are in intensive care. About 64 percent of ICU beds in Utah are filled. Also, UDOH reports 216 of the state’s nearly 1,300 ventilators are currently in use.
Since the start of the pandemic total COVID hospitalizations have reached over 33,000.
The number of Utahns fully vaccinated has grown to almost 1.99 million which is more than 61 percent of the state’s population, but only 27 percent of Utahns have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Over 4.9 million doses have been administered. UDOH reports 2,047 vaccinations since Monday.
There were 2,493 Utahns tested for COVID since Monday while over 4.9 million people have been tested and almost 9.3 million total tests have been administered.
Utah’s new rolling seven-day average for positive tests has dropped to 258 a day.
The new seven-day rolling average for percent positivity of “people over people” is 8.8 percent and the rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of “tests over tests” is 5.6 percent.
UDOH reported that in the last 28 days, people who are unvaccinated are at 5.5 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19, 2.2 times greater risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19, and 1.9 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 than vaccinated people.