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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah health officials reported 10 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, along with 6,600 new cases.
School children account for 1,021 of the new cases. Of those cases, 423 were children between ages 5 and 10, 251 were children 11-13, and 347 were children 14-17.
The rolling seven-day average for new positive tests is now 9,205 per day, which seems to be on a downward trend. The seven-day average for positive tests is currently 44.9%, a new pandemic record, which is only slightly higher than Monday's rate of 44.2%.
With the positive case rate continuing to climb slowly, it is possible that the drop in average cases is due to fewer people getting tested or more people using at-home tests. Utah has been short on COVID tests, and in the last few weeks, officials have encouraged people who have symptoms but are not high risk and will not be around high-risk individuals to not seek a test.
The health department reported another 11,784 people who were tested. This number was frequently twice as high over the last few weeks, with daily test numbers around 22,000 or 25,000 before a drop to 19,357 on Friday.
Currently, 747 people are hospitalized in the state with COVID-19, with 189 of those patients in the ICU, according to the health department. State health officials are reporting that 57.1% of non-ICU beds are currently in use, 86.4% of ICU beds, and 89.1% of ICU referral beds.
Since Feb. 1, 2021, when the Utah Department of Health began tracking vaccine statistics, there have been 294,039 cases in unvaccinated people and 152,779 cases in vaccinated people. The department reports that unvaccinated people have a 1.5 times higher chance of testing positive for COVID-19, although in the last 28 days during the omicron variant officials have reported a 2.3 times higher chance.
State health officials have also reported that since last February, 12,689 unvaccinated people have been hospitalized compared to 3,596 vaccinated people; and, 1,638 unvaccinated people have died, compared to 438 vaccinated people. This Utah data suggests that unvaccinated people have a 6.7 times higher risk of death and a 4.5 times greater risk of hospitalization.
The 10 people whose deaths were reported, include:
- Two Salt Lake County men between the ages of 65 and 84, who was hospitalized when he died.
- Two Davis County men, 25-44, hospitalized.
- A Davis County man, over 85, hospitalized.
- A Washington County woman, 65-84, hospitalized.
- A Salt Lake County woman, over 85, hospitalized.
- Two Salt Lake County men, 45-64, hospitalized.
- A Salt Lake County man, 65-84, not hospitalized.
