As he spoke to a joint session of Congress this week during his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden announced a new “Test to Treat” initiative and explained with it people can get a COVID-19 test at a pharmacy and also receive free antiviral pills.
The President said he couldn’t promise a new variant won’t emerge. “I can promise you we’ll do everything within our power to be ready if it does,” Pres. Biden declared.
Since Wednesday, six more Utahns died of COVID-19. From the start of the pandemic the lives of 4,442 Utahns have been lost to the virus. That includes 225 in Cache, Box Elder and Rich Counties.
The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) reported 396 new positive cases of coronavirus Thursday.
Since the start of the pandemic in March, 2020, there have been 923,987 positive cases in Utah.
Thursday 299 Utahns statewide are hospitalized with COVID and since the pandemic began 33,372 Utahns have been hospitalized.
With 3,488 people vaccinated since Wednesday, the number of Utahns fully vaccinated stands at more than 1.98 million, 61 percent of the state’s population. Nearly five million doses have been administered statwide.
More than 4,000 Utahns were tested since Wednesday which means more than 4.9 million people have been tested and over 9.2 million total tests have been administered the last 24 months. Total tests administered since Wednesday are 9,715.
Utah’s new rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 367 a day.
The latest seven-day rolling average for percent positivity of “people over people” is 12.4 percent while the rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of “tests over tests” is 7.6 percent.
Idaho’s Thursday COVID update indicates 4,772 coronavirus deaths and a new total of confirmed COVID-19 cases is 272,625 statewide. New case counts in the three southeast Idaho counties include 2,329 total positives in Franklin County, 903 in Bear Lake County and 792 in Oneida County.