A statement Thursday from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services (USHHS)— based on current COVID-19 numbers in-state and on trends in other areas of the country — indicates Utah officials expect sustained increases in the spread of the virus over the coming weeks.
“We are seeing an increase of COVID-19 across the state right now as well as an increase in the number of people who are being hospitalized,” said the statement.
The state’s health department now issues weekly COVID reports each Thursday and this week’s update includes more deaths than last week, more cases and once again a high positivity rate.
During a Thursday afternoon media briefing, the chair of Intermountain Healthcare COVID-19 therapeutics, Dr. Brandon Webb said, “We’re in a surge phase again.”
The health department reports the last seven days there have been 4,504 new coronavirus cases statewide and four new deaths.
Since the start of the pandemic, 34,595 Utahns have been hospitalized, including 348 during the last week. The current 118 patients hospitalized in Utah is 41 more than a week ago. COVID patients in ICUs grew to 18, six more than a week ago.
The number of fully vaccinated Utahns has grown to 2,020,992, which is more than 62 percent of the state population.
The latest update from Cache, Box Elder and Rich counties, issued by the Bear River Health Department (BRHD), shows 247 Covid deaths in the district (131 in Box Elder county, 112 in Cache county and three in Rich county.) There have been almost 52,000 positive cases in northern Utah since March, 2020.
More than 59 percent of the 186,818 people in the state’s three northern counties are fully vaccinated. Also, almost 264,000 vaccine doses have been administered in the BRHD.