FILE – Students perform rapid COVID-19 tests at Weber State University Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020, in Ogden, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
LOGAN – Utah’s plan to test all college students weekly or biweekly for COVID-19 has been dropped. Then-Gov. Gary Herbert ordered the weekly testing in November; later it was amended to every other week.
Colleges will now require students get tested once — at the beginning of the term — within 10 days of classes starting. Students who don’t comply could be assigned to entirely online courses.
Classes at Utah State University begin Jan. 19.
Utah’s Sunday caseload includes 2,276 positive COVID-19 infections among the 10,056 tests statewide, a 23 percent positivity rate the last 24 hours, which is low relative to recent positivity results.
The state’s rolling seven-day average for positive tests at 3,212 and the rolling seven-day average for percent of positive laboratory tests at 31.5 percent.
With Sunday’s two fatalities there have been 1,392 Utah deaths since the the start of the pandemic.
There were 102 new positives Sunday in northern Utah. There have been 16,363 total cases in the Bear River district since the start of the outbreak.
A total of 584 patients in the district have been hospitalized.
Among the 16,363 positive cases over the course of the pandemic in the Bear River District 14,191 have recovered.
The state reported a total of 102,809 vaccines have been administered as of Sunday, an increase of over 10,056 over Saturday.
Utah’s new total for COVID-19 positive tests since the start of the pandemic in March has now reached 305,999. Over the course of the pandemic there have been 1,826,385 tests administered in Utah.
Across the state current hospitalizations Sunday remained steady at 541.
The latest Idaho report indicates there are 149,235 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state. There have been 1,528 COVID deaths in Idaho with 969 positive tests in Franklin County, 298 positives in Bear Lake County and 269 in Oneida County.