Friday, for the second straight day, the coronavirus claimed the lives of two northern Utah residents. A Box Elder County man, between 65 and 84 years of age, was hospitalized at the time of his death and a Cache County man, older than 85, died at home.
There have been 66 COVID fatalities in two northern counties of the state: 38 in Box Elder County, 28 in Cache County. There have been no reported COVID deaths in Rich County.
In the last eight days, the lives of 10 northern Utah residents have been claimed by the coronavirus.
Over the 10 months of the pandemic, why have there been 38 coronavirus deaths in Box Elder County and 28 deaths in Cache County, a county with a population almost two and a half times larger than Box Elder County?
Bear River Health Department Epidemiologist Caleb Harrison explains.
“If you look at the average age of a Box Elder County resident, it is much higher than the average age of a Cache County resident,” says Harrison. “Box Elder County, on average, has higher rates of pre-existing conditions, things like diabetes, hypertension and obesity. So, it’s those underlying things, the age and overall health of the average resident of Box Elder County that is driving up their incidence of coronavirus death.”
The Bear River Health Department Friday listed 59 positive coronavirus cases in the district with 18,828 cases since the start of the pandemic.
There have been 714 patients in the district who have been hospitalized: 500 in Cache County, 209 in Box Elder County and five in Rich County. There are 17,713 who have recovered among the 18,828 total cases in the district.
The Utah Department of Health reported 17 new deaths Friday. Twelve of the deaths occurred before Jan. 15, 2021. The new report lists 1,728 Utah deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Friday state officials announced 20,180 more Utahns were vaccinated against the virus since Thursday so now 382,881 vaccine doses have been administered statewide.
The testing of 7,696 people in Utah since Wednesday found 1,216 new cases for a positivity rate of 15.8 percent the last 24 hours. The state’s rolling seven-day average for percent of positive laboratory tests is 16.3 percent while the rolling seven -day average for positive tests is 1,222 per day.
There are 349 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19. From the beginning of the outbreak hospitalizations now total 13,755.
The most recent Idaho report shows 164,565 confirmed COVID-19 cases. There have been 1,747 deaths in Idaho with 1,024 positive tests in Franklin County, 333 cases in Bear Lake County and 313 in Oneida County.