Omicron variant
The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) reported its single highest daily coronavirus case count Wednesday, which is influenced by the arrival of the Omicron variant last month.
A UDOH statement confirmed the 7,247 cases are more than the total number of cases they reported over the first 68 days of the pandemic combined.
“Unfortunately, we can expect numbers this high and possibly higher for the next few weeks as Omicron sweeps through our community,” said State Epidemiologist Dr. Leisha Nolen. “Vaccinations and boosters have been shown to reduce cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. They are the most important thing you can do to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your community.”
Among the 44 new COVID-19 deaths reported Wednesday, UDOH noted 23 of them occurred before December 1, 2021, after further investigation to determine they were caused by COVID-19. The total of Utah COVID deaths has reached 3,855, 197 of them from Cache, Box Elder and Rich counties.
For the second straight day the rolling seven-day for positive tests set a new record: 4,317 a day. There have been 663,654 positive cases in Utah since the start of the pandemic.
In Utah there are 495 people hospitalized with COVID-19. There have been 27,938 hospitalizations in Utah since the start of the pandemic.
With 19,906 Utahns tested since Tuesday there are now over 4.3 million people who have been tested and almost 8.0 million total tests have been administered the last 22 months.
The new seven-day rolling average for percent positivity of “people over people” is 22.9 percent while the rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of “tests over tests” is 15.5 percent.
There were 12,143 people vaccinated statewide since Tuesday and almost 4.6 million vaccines have been administered since the start of the pandemic. As of Wednesday 97,957 in the Bear River Health District are fully vaccinated which is 65.5 percent of the district’s population.
Idaho’s Wednesday COVID update indicates 4,188 coronavirus deaths and the new total of confirmed COVID-19 cases is 322,524 statewide. New case counts in the three southeast Idaho counties include 1,867 total positives in Franklin County, 755 in Bear Lake County and 610 in Oneida County.