The Utah Department of Health on Sunday reported another 344 cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths in the state caused by the disease.
Nearly 2.5 million people have been tested in Utah, utilizing more than 4.3 million tests, since the pandemic began in late 2019. The first cases of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Utah were identified in March of last year, with the first reported death in April.
To date, 2,159 people in Utah have died from COVID-19, the health department reports. There have been 390,104 COVID-19 cases identified in Utah, resulting in a 0.5% mortality rate in Utah.
The death toll across the United States, however, is much higher, with more than 31 million cases of COVID-19 identified and 561,000 deaths caused by the disease, resulting in a 1.8% mortality rate — meaning that 1.8% of people who contract the disease have died because of it, according to the Coronavirus Research Center at Johns Hopkins University.
The United States has experienced the highest concentration of COVID-19, surpassing disease counts anywhere in the world, while additionally experiencing the highest death toll, the center reports.
About 3.6% of COVID-19 tests administered in Utah are resulting in diagnoses of disease, the health department reports, with a rolling seven-day average number of positive tests now at 396 per day. The state reached as high as a 27% test positivity rate in December.
The state has administered 1,703,065 vaccines since they became available in December, including 19,328 since yesterday. That includes 1,099,828 people who have received at least one dose, and 679,331 people who are fully vaccinated.
The health department reported 43 people currently hospitalized because of COVID-19 in Utah on Sunday, though the low number is due to a reporting issue with one of the state’s health care systems. That number may be updated later in the day, according to the health department.
On Saturday there were 143 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Utah, up from 129 a week ago.
In all, 1,570 people have been hospitalized in Utah since the pandemic began.
COVID-19 cases and deaths have been trending downward in Utah since the end of January, with peaks occurring in August and September of last year when schools and universities reopened to students, and then again around the winter holidays.
Highly populated areas throughout the state still have moderate to high transmission rates, with more rural counties exhibiting lower disease rates and lower incidence of transmission. Salt Lake and Utah counties have the most incidence of disease, but also the most people.
A new law passed by Utah lawmakers earlier this year ended the statewide mask mandate on Saturday, though masks are still required at schools and in groups of 50 or more. Businesses and local governments are able to enact mask mandates as they see fit, according to the law.
