Utah reports 1,672 COVID cases, 9 additional deaths

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health on Friday said nine more Utahns have died due to COVID-19 and 1,672 residents tested positive for the virus.

Of those cases, 358 (21.41%) were school-aged children — 148 cases in children ages 5-10, 96 cases in children ages 11-13 and 114 cases in children ages 14-18.

Currently, 587 Utahns are hospitalized due to the virus and the ICUs at Utah’s 16 referral center hospitals, where the majority of COVID-19 patients are treated, are 92.8% full — well above the state’s “functionally full” threshold of 85%.

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The rolling seven-day average for positive tests was 1,390 — down from 1,456 on Monday and 1,545 last Monday.

An additional 5,159 vaccine doses have been administered since Thursday, bringing the state’s total to 3,416,501.

UDOH said over 1.66 million Utahns are now fully vaccinated and over 1.88 million have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has also fully approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

“The vaccine has been proven to be safe and highly effective since it first became available under emergency use last December. Full FDA approval is the final step in a rigorous approval process to confirm the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness,” UDOH officials said. “The FDA’s announcement should provide confidence to anyone who may have hesitated to get the vaccine while it was under emergency use. We strongly encourage you to get vaccinated and help end the pandemic. We also strongly encourage healthcare providers who haven’t offered COVID-19 vaccines at their practice before now, to take the necessary steps to enroll as vaccine providers as soon as possible.”

Vaccinated vs. unvaccinated risk ratios

UDOH has added data on risk ratios among the vaccinated and the unvaccinated for testing positive, becoming hospitalized and dying from COVID-19 to the public data dashboard.

That data can be found by clicking on the “Risk Factors” tab at coronavirus.utah.gov.

Since Feb. 1, people who are unvaccinated are at 4.2 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19, 5 times greater risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19, and 4.3 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 than vaccinated people.

Of the 1,621,756 Utahns who are 14 days past their fully vaccinated date, 16,237 (1.0012%) have tested positive for COVID-19, 834 have been hospitalized (0.05143%) and 107 have died (0.0066%).

Utah has reported 500,698 positive COVID-19 cases, 21,749 hospitalizations and 2,869 deaths in total since the pandemic started.

“The UDOH determines vaccine status for cases using two methods — by linking all known cases to vaccination records reported into the Utah Statewide Immunization Information System (USIIIS) and through self-report by asking all cases if they have been fully vaccinated,” UDOH officials said. “Breakthrough cases may be overrepresented in the data due to this self-reporting.”

Testing

UDOH reports 3,404,589 people have been tested — 10,009 more than Thursday. Of those, 500,698 Utahns have tested positive for COVID-19 — an increase of 1,672 new cases.

The rolling seven-day average for positive tests was 1,390 — down from 1,456 on Monday and 1,545 last Monday.

On June 1, Utah’s rolling seven-day average was 200 cases.

The rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of “people over people” dropped slightly to 13.6% while the rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of “tests over tests” dropped slightly to 9.9%.

Vaccinations

The state has administered 3,416,501 vaccine doses in total, which is an increase of 5,159 over Thursday’s numbers.

As of Friday, over 1.88 million Utahns had received at least one dose of a vaccine and over 1.66 million Utahns had been fully vaccinated.

Over 4.01 million vaccines have been delivered to Utah.

Hospitalizations

Currently, 587 people are hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19 — Utah’s highest total since mid-January — and 226 of those people are in intensive care units.

Utah’s ICUs were 91% full and the ICU beds in Utah’s referral centers were 92.8% full Friday — well above the state’s utilization threshold or “functionally full” mark of 85%.

“At about 69% overall ICU utilization, ICUs in Utah’s major hospitals with the ability to provide best care for COVID-19 patients begin to reach staffing capacity,” UDOH officials said. “Seventy-two percent use among all hospitals and 77% in referral center hospitals creates major strains on the health care system. When 85% capacity is reached, Utah will be functionally out of staffed ICU beds, indicating an overwhelmed hospital system.”

Deaths

As of Friday, the virus had killed 2,869 of the state’s residents. The following deaths were reported Friday: