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Utah reported fewer than 100 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and five more deaths.
There have been fewer than 200 new cases reported in Utah each day for the past three weeks. Including the 98 cases reported Tuesday, there have been 927,649 coronavirus cases in Utah since the pandemic began.
These low daily tallies come as the state plans to shut down many testing facilities and transition to a more “long-term, sustainable response” to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Utah Department of Health has said.
Before visiting a testing site, UDOH advised people to visit coronavirus.utah.gov/utah-covid-19-testing-locations for the latest information on operating hours, types of tests offered at each site, cost and more.
After Thursday, the state will no longer release daily COVID-19 data. Instead, the state will update its dashboard once a week on Thursdays, UDOH said.
New COVID-19 cases, deaths in Utah
The average number of new cases in the past week is 113.
The number of COVID-19 tests administered each day remains relatively low. In January, at the height of the omicron variant spike, upward of 40,000 tests were being performed each day. The state reported about a tenth of that number — 4,293 tests — on Tuesday
Four of the five deaths reported Tuesday occurred before Feb. 28. That brings Utah’s coronavirus death toll to 4,711.
The number of people hospitalized in Utah with COVID-19 was 97, five fewer than Monday. There were still 20 coronavirus patients in intensive care units — the same number reported Monday.
According to UDOH, 59.7% of Utah’s ICU beds are filled, which falls below the 85% threshold that healthcare workers have said is needed to have enough rooms, equipment and staff available to treat new patients. COVID-19 patients make up 6.4% of the state’s ICU patients.
The state reported 1,505 more vaccines dose administered on Tuesday, bringing the total to 5,003,106.
State data shows 61.5% of Utahns were fully vaccinated as of Friday. But only 27.5% of all Utahns have received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
A UDOH analysis continues to show that booster shots significantly decrease Utahns’ chances of dying of COVID-19. Over the past four weeks:
• An unvaccinated person who contracts the virus is 2.6 times more likely to die than a fully vaccinated person, and 9.4 times more likely than a boosted person.
• An unvaccinated person who contracts the virus is 2 times as likely to be hospitalized as a fully vaccinated person, and 4.9 times more likely than a boosted person.
• An unvaccinated person is twice as likely to contract the virus than a fully vaccinated person, and 1.9 times more likely than a boosted person.
Find where to get vaccinated at coronavirus.utah.gov/vaccine-distribution.
Breakdown of updated figures
Vaccine doses administered in the past day/total doses administered • 1,505 / 5,003,106.
Number of Utahns fully vaccinated • 1,999,266 — 61.5% of Utah’s total population. That is an increase of 1,505 in the past day.
Cases reported during the past day • 98.
Tests reported in the past day • A total of 4,293 people were tested.
Deaths reported in the past day • Five. Four of the deaths occurred before Feb. 28.
All who died were men. The youngest was from Salt Lake County, between the ages of 25 and 44. In Carbon, Tooele, Uintah and Weber counties, the men who died were 65-84.
Hospitalizations reported in the past day • 97. That’s five fewer than reported on Monday.
Percentage of positive tests • Under the state’s original method, the rate was 5% over the past day. That’s higher than the seven-day average of 4.1%.
The state’s newer method counts all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual. Tuesday’s rate was 2.3%, lower than the seven-day average of 2.7%.
Totals to date • 927,649 cases; 4,711 deaths; 34,000 hospitalizations; 9,400,724 tests administered.
