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SALT LAKE CITY — Health officials reported another 15 COVID-19 deaths and 2,062 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as the seven-day rolling average continues to decrease.
In all, there have been 907,174 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Utah since the first was identified in March of 2020.
School children account for 290 of the new cases reported Wednesday. Of those cases, 134 are Utah children between ages 5 and 10, 56 are children 11-13, and 100 are children 14-17.
The rolling, seven-day average for new positive tests is now 2,173 per day, which continues a downward trend in the number of cases reported each day. The seven-day average for positive tests is currently 34.4%, down from 35.7% on Tuesday.
The health department also reported another 5,792 people were tested since Tuesday.
Currently, 677 people are hospitalized throughout the state with COVID-19, health officials report. Of those patients, 157 are in intensive care.
Of the COVID-19 cases that Utah health officials have investigated, 4.8% have led to a hospitalization and 0.7% have led to an ICU stay.
There is a much higher likelihood that older individuals will become hospitalized after infection, including about 32% of people older than 85, about 19% in people ages 64 and 85, about 7% in people ages 45 and 64, about 3% in people ages 25 and 44, less than 2% in people ages 15 and 25, and less than 1% in children ages 1 and 14.
The average age of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Utah is about 53.
The health department said that 51.8% of people who were hospitalized are considered high-risk, which means they are older than 65 or are otherwise immunocompromised.
People who are not vaccinated, according to health officials, have had a 4.6 times greater chance of hospitalization due to the coronavirus over the last four weeks. They are also at 8.2 times greater risk of death and 2.4 times greater risk of testing positive with the disease.
Since Feb. 1, 2021, however, unvaccinated people have been at 1.4 times greater risk of testing positive than vaccinated people in Utah, as well as 4.1 times greater risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19 and 6.4 times greater risk of dying, according to the health department.
Of the 490,426 cases that have been reported since Feb. 1, 2021, 180,139 — about 37% — were breakthrough cases in people who were considered to be fully vaccinated at the time of diagnosis.
There have been 4,237 lives lost to the disease throughout the pandemic, according to the health department.
The latest deaths include:
- A Utah County man between the ages of 65 and 84, who was not hospitalized when he died
- A Weber County man, 18-24, hospitalized
- A Weber County man, 45-64, hospitalized
- A Duchesne County woman, 25-44, hospitalized
- A Salt Lake County man, 65-84, hospitalized
- A Weber County man, 65-84, unknown if hospitalized
- A Utah County woman, over 85, hospitalized
- A Cache County woman, 65-84, hospitalized
- A Davis County man, 45-64, hospitalized
- A Salt Lake County man, 65-84, hospitalized
- A Salt Lake County man, over 85, unknown if hospitalized
- A Salt Lake County man, 45-64, unknown if hospitalized
- A Weber County woman, 65-84, hospitalized
- A Weber County woman, 65-84, unknown if hospitalized
- A Salt Lake County woman, 45-64, unknown if hospitalized
