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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah health officials on Monday reported 2,500 new COVID-19 cases since Friday, as well as 13 additional deaths.
Friday brought 910 new cases; 963 were confirmed on Saturday; and 749 cases were reported Sunday, the Utah Department of Health said. School-age children accounted for 376 of the new cases —171 cases were ages 5-10, 79 cases were 11-13, and 126 cases were 14-17.
Monday also marked the first time since Aug. 17 that the rolling, seven-day average for new cases fell below 1,000. That number is now 978 cases per day, and the positive rate of those tested is 12.3%.
But doctors have warned that the holidays and the arrival of the new, more transmissible omicron variant could soon cause cases to increase.
The variant will likely surpass delta to become the dominant strain in Utah by the new year, Dr. Brandon Webb, infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare, said Friday.
Cases surged over the weekend in eastern states including New York as the new variant spreads across the country, Reuters reported, causing fears of potential skyrocketing cases after the holidays.
On Monday, 453 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 throughout Utah — a decrease of 50 since the previous Monday, Dec. 13.
Health care workers in Utah administered 30,838 vaccine doses since Friday's report, bringing total doses given in Utah to 4,434,660, the health department said. Now 62.5% of those ages 5 and older in the state are fully vaccinated, meaning they have received at least two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, or one dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
Of the cases reported since Friday, 836 were "breakthrough," meaning cases among those who had been fully vaccinated more than two weeks before testing positive for the coronavirus. The state also reported seven additional breakthrough deaths. That brings total breakthrough cases in Utah since vaccines became available to 56,206 and breakthrough deaths to 338.
Since the pandemic began, Utah has confirmed 620,197 COVID-19 cases and 3,717 deaths due to the disease.
One of the deaths reported Monday occurred before December. The latest deaths include:
- A Cache County man between the ages of 45 and 64, who was hospitalized when he died
- A Salt Lake County man, 25-64, hospitalized
- A Salt Lake County man, 45-64, hospitalized
- A Uintah County man, older than 85, not hospitalized
- A Utah County woman, 65-84, hospitalized
- A Utah County man, 65-84, hospitalized
- Two Utah County men, older than 85, both hospitalized
- A Washington County man, 65-84, hospitalized.
- Two Washington County men, 45-64, both hospitalized
- A Weber County man, 45-64, hospitalized
- A Weber County woman, older than 85, not hospitalized
