State epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn provides updates on the ongoing pandemic during the weekly briefing on COVID-19 at the Capitol, May 6, 2021. Dunn is leaving her statewide post to instead lead Salt Lake County’s Health Department. (Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune)
During his Thursday COVID press conference Gov. Spencer Cox said as case counts go down in Utah, restrictions will be loosened on Utahns.
“We encourage, more than anything, it is now really about personal responsibility,” Gov. Cox said. “People need to exercise caution, especially those that are not vaccinated or who are at high risk. And so we sure appreciate the measured approach that so many people have taken to help us get back to normal.”
Thursday was the final time State Epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn will appear at the Governor’s press briefing before leaving for her new job at Salt Lake County Health and the governor praised her as representative of all the incredible health workers in Utah.
She thanked Utah for the opportunity to serve.
“And I do just want to say, since this is my last press conference, thank you,” Dr. Dunn exclaimed. “Thank you to the state of Utah, to my Utah Department of Health family, of course the media, and all the Utahns out there that have been such a great support over the past 14 months.”
With no new COVID deaths reported Thursday, Utah’s death toll remained at 2,219.
Also Thursday, the Utah Department of Health said there were 395 new positive COVID-19 cases detected statewide and 24 in northern Utah.
Currently, Utah is 495 people away from one million Utahns becoming fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. The number of fully vaccinated citizens is 999,505.
There were 17,760 new vaccine doses administered since Wednesday and vaccinations in Utah now total over 2.24 million.
The rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 343 a day. The rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of people over people is 6.7 percent. The rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of “tests over tests” is 3.5 percent
Utah’s current COVID-19 hospitalizations are now at 142 people, 11 fewer than Wednesday. There are 58 people in intensive care units which is four fewer than Wednesday. A total of 16,303 people have been hospitalized during the pandemic.
In Idaho’s most recent report there are 188,435 confirmed coronavirus cases and 2,052 COVID-19 deaths. In the three southeast Idaho counties case counts include 1,182 positive cases in Franklin County, 383 in Bear Lake County and 358 in Oneida County.