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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health reported 6,522 new COVID-19 cases and 13 additional deaths over the past seven days.
The daily average for new cases was just under 932 cases. It marks a decrease compared to the previous week, when the average was just under 1,072 cases.
But officials have noted the state's case counts likely don't represent the true situation, as many stopped getting tested when Utah-sponsored testing sites closed this spring. Many are also using at-home rapid tests, or not testing at all.
Other COVID-19 data metrics showed increases on Thursday.
Health officials said 192 patients were hospitalized with the coronavirus across Utah, an increase of 19 since the previous Thursday, June 9.
More wastewater testing sites showed increased or elevated virus levels over the previous week — 73.5% compared to 55.9% of sites last week.
The percentage of people with the coronavirus who visited the emergency room also rose from 3.78% of visits last week to 4.21% this week.
The Salt Lake County Health Department announced Thursday that the county has reached the high level of community spread of COVID, according to a tweet from the department. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages people in areas with high community spread to wear a mask indoors in public and get vaccinated.
Eight other counties are now seeing medium community levels of the disease, according to the CDC guidelines. Those counties include: Weber, Summit, Grand, San Juan, Garfield, Kane, Washington and Piute.
Bad news, fam — Salt Lake County is back to HIGH level of COVID in our community. The CDC advises communities in HIGH to wear a mask indoors in public, stay up to date on vaccines, and get tested if you have symptoms.
— Salt Lake Health (@SaltLakeHealth) June 16, 2022
The stealth omicron variant — which officials say is more transmissible but causes less severe disease than other variants — remains prominent across Utah.
To date, Utah has confirmed 968,731 COVID-19 cases and 4,806 deaths due to the disease.
The deaths reported Thursday include:
- A Davis County woman older than 85.
- A Salt Lake County man, 45-64.
- A Salt Lake County man, 65-84.
- A Salt Lake County man, older than 85.
- Three Salt Lake County women, 65-84.
- A Tooele County woman, 65-84.
- A Uintah County woman, 45-64.
- A Utah County man, 25-44.
- A Utah County woman, 65-84.
- A Utah County woman who was older than 85.
- A Weber County woman, 65-84.
