Dr. Eric Lowe, left, is among the first six Bozeman Health employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Bozeman, Mont., Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. (Perrin Stein/Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)
Utah hospitals received their first shipments of coronavirus vaccines Monday, with the understanding vaccines won’t be available for the public until the spring or summer.
Also in the news at the start of the week are high levels of stress because of COVID-19 hospitalizations, but hospitals have not yet asked the Governor to invoke crisis standards of care.
The coronavirus deaths of seven more Utahns were included in the state health department’s Monday report. The total Utah deaths during the pandemic is 1,062.
Also Monday the Utah Department of Health case count added 1,968 new coronavirus cases, marking the first time total cases failed to reach 2,000 in December. The total number of cases in Utah during the pandemic has grown to 235,872.
The Bear River Health Department reported 118 new cases in northern Utah Monday which brings to 12,546 the total of cases in the district since the start of the outbreak.
Since the start of the pandemic a total of 446 patients in the district have been hospitalized.
There have been 38 coronavirus deaths in the Bear River Health District, 21 in Box Elder County and 17 in Cache County.
Among the 12,546 positive cases over the course of the pandemic in the Bear River District 10,122 have recovered.
Across the state there are 572 hospitalizations as of Monday. Since the beginning of the outbreak there have been 9,486 hospitalizations.
Monday the rolling seven-day average for percent of positive laboratory tests was at 24.07 percent, while the current rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 2,598 a day.
There have been a total of 1,580,843, tests in Utah during the pandemic; there were 5,621 tests administered since Sunday.
The latest Idaho report indicates there are 121,179 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state. There have been 1,175 COVID deaths in Idaho with 814 positive tests in Franklin County, 230 positives in Bear Lake County and 219 in Oneida County.