1 year into COVID-19 pandemic Utah passes 2K deaths, but Gov. Cox feels 'incredibly optimistic'

SALT LAKE CITY — A year to the day since the fateful Utah Jazz game that would elevate the seriousness of the newly declared COVID-19 pandemic, Utah passed the grim benchmark of 2,000 total COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began.

But state leaders remained optimistic Thursday as record numbers of Utahns continue to be vaccinated against the disease.

"We feel incredibly optimistic about where we are," Gov. Spencer Cox said at a Thursday news conference.

Utah's number of COVID-19 cases increased by 646 on Thursday, with 23 more deaths and 34,290 vaccinations reported, according to the Utah Department of Health.

Fifteen of the deaths occurred before Feb. 11 but were still being investigated by state medical examiners, the health department reported. Thursday's death total puts Utah at 2,015 total deaths reported since the pandemic began.

Cox pointed out that 2,000 COVID-19 deaths has been considered a "best-case scenario" for Utah based on several projections for the disease's effect on the state. But he didn't minimize the fact that 2,000 people lost their lives.

"It's still incredibly tragic," the governor said.

About 150,000 more Utahns were vaccinated over the past week, which was a significant increase in vaccinations over the week before, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said Thursday. Over 34,000 Utahns were vaccinated Wednesday, which is a record vaccination day for Utah, she added.

About 79% of Utahns aged 70 and older have now received at least one vaccine dose, which outpaces the national average for that age group, according to Cox and Henderson. About 64% of the 65-69 age group in Utah has now received at least one dose, while about 29% of the 50-64 age group now has one dose after eligibility was expanded to that group last week.

Though Utah reached the tragic deaths milestone Thursday, state leaders anticipate passing a much more optimistic benchmark in the coming days: Utah will soon administer its 1 millionth dose of the vaccine, Henderson said.

"We're really excited about that," she said. "Our workers are doing such a good job."

Cox didn't expand eligibility to any new groups Thursday. The governor's office announced earlier this week that eligibility will be expanded to every Utah adult who wants a vaccine by April 1, a target date Cox reiterated Thursday.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox provided a COVID-19 pandemic update at a news conference Thursday morning. Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and Utah Department of Health state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn also spoke at the event. Watch the replay of the news conference below.

Vaccine eligibility expanding April 1 to all Utah adults

It's no April Fool — Utah leaders plan on opening vaccine eligibility to all adults who want it on April 1, Cox said.

However, he clarified that that means anyone in the state will be able to start making appointments on that date. Utah still isn't being allocated enough doses of the vaccine to inoculate residents at the rate vaccine clinics are capable of handling, the governor added.

Utah is administering about 150,000 vaccine doses per week, but has the capacity to vaccinate about 300,000 each week, Cox said. If the federal government doubled Utah's allocation tomorrow, the state would be able to handle that influx, he added.

But federal officials are using data that is a few years old to determine vaccine allocations for individual states, Cox said. And since Utah is one of the fastest-growing states in the nation, that data is outdated and Utah is being disproportionately affected and receiving fewer doses than it should, he added.

"It's very frustrating," Cox said. "We've just got to get more doses."

The rollout for the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also going more slowly than state and federal officials anticipated, Cox said.

On the first of the month, when eligibility opens to everyone, Utah still won't have enough doses to vaccinate everyone. Federal officials are planning to use updated data for calculating allocations soon, and Utah state leaders are expecting a major increase in the state's allocation later in April, the governor added.

In the meantime, Utah's statewide mask mandate will expire on April 10, due to House Bill 294, which passed through both bodies of the Utah State Legislature with a veto-proof majority.

Cox said the executive branch would have preferred to get more people vaccinated before lifting the mask mandate, but the legislature disagreed. He asked for the legislature to give as many days as possible before lifting the mandate, and that fell on April 10.

"I obviously don't love the bill," Cox said.

Masks will still be required in K-12 schools and at gatherings of 50 or more people, the governor said. Individual businesses also have the right to require masks in their establishments if they want, he said.

The governor pleaded with people to accept their individual responsibility after the mask mandate expires, like his predecessor Gary Herbert asked dozens of times before him.

"Please act with respect toward your fellow human beings," Cox said. "Don't make a fool of yourself because you don't want to wear a mask."

People should simply shop somewhere else if they don't want to wear a mask inside a business where they're required, Cox said.

Likewise, people shouldn't yell at servers in restaurants if their tables are too close to another group's, Cox said. In moderate transmission-level counties, restaurants are allowed to open at full capacity, so long as patrons wear masks while they're not eating or drinking, and six feet of social distancing is allowed between separate groups in waiting areas.

If people aren't comfortable with those parameters, they should get takeout instead of taking out their frustrations on restaurant workers, Cox said.

"We have to treat each other with respect… this is not a free for all," he said. "We need a measure of grace and patience with each other."

New COVID-19 cases

The health department now estimates there are 12,935 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah.

The rolling seven-day average number of positive cases per day is now at 524, according to the health department. The positive test rate per day for that time period reported with the "people over people" method is now 8.4%. The positive test rate per day seven-day average calculated with the "test over test" method is now 4%.

While new cases have trended downward for the first few months of the new year, Utah appears to have reached another plateau in cases over the last week, health department state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said Thursday.

"It has been a very long and roller coaster of a year," she said.

Though cases are plateauing, percent positivity rates, hospitalizations and deaths have all continued decreasing, Dunn said.

But while averages 500-600 cases a day are much better than Utah saw during the winter COVID-19 surge, those case rates still aren't sustainable from a public health standpoint, Dunn said. She urged people to continue wearing masks and adhering to public health recommendations, even as vaccinations are increasing, so those continue to go down.

"We're on our way to the end, we are so close," Dunn said.

There are 167 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized in Utah, including 66 in intensive care, state data shows. About 70% of intensive care unit beds in Utah hospitals are now occupied, including about 71% of ICU beds in the state's 16 referral hospitals. About 56% of non-ICU hospital beds are now occupied, according to the health department.

The new numbers indicate a 0.2% increase in positive cases since Wednesday. Of the 2,273,483 people tested for COVID-19 in Utah so far, 16.6% have tested positive for the disease. The total number of tests conducted in Utah since the pandemic began is now 3,971,360, up 18,923 since Wednesday, according to state data. Of those, 8,139 were tests of people who had not previously been tested for COVID-19.

A total of 936,681 vaccines have been administered in the state, up from 902,391 Wednesday. A total of 618,337 Utahns have now received at least one vaccine dose, and 339,743 have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. A total of 1,151,265 vaccine doses have now been delivered to Utah.

The 23 deaths reported Thursday include:

• A Box Elder County woman who was over the age of 85 and was not hospitalized when she died
• A Cache County woman who was over the age of 85 and was a resident of a long-term care facility
• A Davis County man who was between the ages of 45 and 64 and was hospitalized when he died
• A Davis County woman who was over the age of 85 and was a resident of a long-term care facility
• A Davis County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was hospitalized when he died
• A Davis County woman who was over the age of 85 and was not hospitalized when she died
• An Iron County woman who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was hospitalized when she died
• A Kane County man who was over the age of 85 and was not hospitalized when he died
• Two Salt Lake County men who were over the age of 85 and were not hospitalized when they died
• A Salt Lake County man who was over the age of 85 and was a resident of a long-term care facility
• Two Salt Lake County women who were over the age of 85 and were not hospitalized when they died
• A Salt Lake County woman who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was not hospitalized when she died
• A Salt Lake County woman who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was a resident of a long-term care facility
• A Salt Lake County woman who was over the age of 85 and was a resident of a long-term care facility
• A Uintah County man who was over the age of 85 and was not hospitalized when he died
• A Utah County man who was over the age of 85 and was not hospitalized when he died
• A Utah County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was not hospitalized when he died
• A Washington County man who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was not hospitalized when he died
• A Washington County man who was between the ages of 45 and 64 and was not hospitalized when he died
• A Washington County woman who was between the ages of 65 and 84 and was hospitalized when she died
• A Weber County woman who was over the age of 85 and was a resident of a long-term care facility

Thursday totals give Utah 376,973 total confirmed cases, with 15,014 total hospitalizations and 2,015 total deaths from the disease. A total of 362,023 Utah COVID-19 cases are now considered recovered, according to state data.

The state's COVID-19 dashboard now includes data on the variants of the disease that are present in Utah. As of Thursday, there have been 33 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom, detected in Utah.

No cases of the Brazilian or South African COVID-19 variants have been detected in Utah so far, according to state data.

Also Thursday, Utah County moved from the high transmission level to the moderate level for the first time since the state began using the transmission index system. Tooele, Iron and Sevier counties have also moved into the moderate transmission level this week.

Beaver, Carbon, Emery, Garfield, Kane, Summit and Uintah counties are still rated at the high transmission level, while Daggett, Piute, Rich and Wayne counties are rated at the low transmission level. All other counties in the state are now rated at the moderate transmission level.

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