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SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns have been battling variants of COVID-19 since November 2020, when the original virus presented differently. Since then, there's been alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omicron variants, each exhibiting different symptoms and transmissibility levels.
Those variants, however, according to a new study, account for more than half of all COVID-19 deaths in the Beehive State.
The Yale School of Public Health and nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen study found that 54% of Utah's deaths due to COVID-19 were caused by variants of the disease and not the original virus that emerged from central China in late 2019.
The omicron variant, prevalent since last winter, has accounted for 568 of the deaths, or about 12%, according to the study.
The study comes as Utah continues to experience a wave of the disease caused largely by subvariants of omicron, health officials have said. The majority of cases since April are attributed to the omicron BA.2 variant, also known as "stealth" omicron, Utah Department of Health data shows. Evidence suggests the variant may be less severe but more transmissible than earlier variants.
Since the pandemic began in early 2020, Utah has seen a total of 4,781 deaths due to the disease and 954,707 confirmed cases. On Thursday, Utah health officials reported 5,728 new COVID-19 cases and four additional deaths from the past seven days. But the majority of deaths confirmed recently occurred in months prior to May, data show.
The deaths reported Thursday included four men, each of whom was between the ages of 65-84. The men were from Salt Lake County, Utah County, Iron County and Washington County, health officials said.
The seven-day average for new cases is about 818, according to data from the Utah Department of Health. That is consistent with the previous week when the average stood at about 802 each day.
Yale and Public Citizen researchers performed their study by creating an epidemiological model with public data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on COVID-19 deaths by state and circulating variants. The study found that more than 40% of the country's 460,000 deaths due to COVID-19 were caused by variants of the original SARS-CoV-2 disease, including alpha, delta and omicron.
On Thursday, 137 hospitalized patients had the coronavirus in Utah. Referral intensive care units that treat the most severe patients were 71.2% full, and overall ICU usage was 67.4%.
Virus levels were increasing or elevated at 61.8% of testing sites — more than twice as many sites than reported the previous week.
The percentage of people who visited emergency rooms and tested positive for COVID-19 also increased from 2.88% of visits to 3.43%.
Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson announced on Twitter Thursday she tested positive for the disease, making her one of several public leaders to test positive during the latest surge in cases. But she said her case is, so far, asymptomatic.
Guess it's my turn. Getting ready for work I had this unpleasant surprise. No symptoms.🤞 pic.twitter.com/iBkwGy42ig
— Jenny Wilson (@JennyWilsonUT) June 2, 2022
