Utah saw another 2,892 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, and nine more Utahns have died from the virus.
For the past week, the state has averaged 2,379 new positive test results a day, down from Wednesday’s figure, the Utah Department of Health reported. However, the average positive test rate for the last seven days rose slightly to 24% — an indicator, health officials say, that many infected people still aren’t being tested.
Since the pandemic began, 260,589 Utahns have tested positive for COVID-19.
Utah’s death toll from the coronavirus rose to 1,204 on Thursday. (One previously reported death was removed from the total, pending further investigation.)
The nine Utahns whose deaths were reported Thursday were:
• A Davis County man between the ages of 45 and 64.
• Five Salt Lake County residents: Two men and two women, all between 65 and 84, and a man older than 85.
• Two Utah County residents: A woman between 25 and 44; and a man older than 85
• A Weber County woman between 45 and 64.
Hospitalizations held steady Thursday, with 561 patients concurrently admitted, UDOH reported. The state reported 88.4% of the state’s intensive care unit beds were filled, with 91.5% of the ICU beds in the state’s larger “referral” hospitals occupied.
Staff at Heber Valley and Park City hospitals received their first doses of the vaccine Wednesday, an Intermountain Healthcare spokesman said. And staff at Gunnison Valley Hospital in Gunnison started getting their shots Wednesday, according to a tweet Thursday from Fox13 anchor Amy Nay, whose father is a doctor there.
A spokeswoman for Mountain West Medical Center in Tooele said Thursday that the independent hospital received its vaccine shipment Wednesday, and staff will start getting their shots Monday morning.
The state reported that tests for 10,631 people were processed since the previous day.
UDOH will be taking Christmas Day off, so the next report of case counts won’t arrive until Saturday.
