Utah Reports Few COVID-19 Tests and Fewest New Cases Since May 2020


Salt Lake County begins scheduling immunization appointments for anyone 16 and older.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Nurse Ashley Hafer fills syringes with the Moderna vaccine for the people who lined up on Thursday, March 18, 2021, as Utah Film Studios lends their space to the Summit County Health Department as a COVID for self-service. -19 vaccination station.

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After a slow Sunday when just 4,144 Utahns were tested for COVID-19, the state reported the fewest new cases in 10 months – just 159. And no new deaths were added to the state total.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and confirmed by the Utah Department of Health, Utah recorded its first case of the P.1, or Brazilian, variant of the coronavirus. This variant is believed to be more easily transmissible, more severe, and possibly more resistant to current vaccines. No information has been released about the Utahn who contracted it.

On Monday, Salt Lake County became the first in the state to start scheduling appointments for anyone 16 and older, and it was doing a big business setting up vaccines.

At 9 am, the county health department opened 46,760 appointments for the month of April; By 5pm, I had reserved 18,590 of those. So there are more than 28,000 left, with April 13 being the earliest available date.

(The Salt Lake County Health Department set the number of appointments based on the number of vaccinations you expect to have, not based on capacity at their sites.)

Last week, Governor Spencer Cox announced that, starting Wednesday, anyone 16 years of age or older will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. They are now available to anyone age 50 and over, and to some people age 16 and over if they had pre-existing conditions.

Other counties in the state are expected to begin scheduling their new round of appointments on Wednesday.

Vaccine dose administered in the previous day / total doses administered • 2,496 / 1,154,778.

Fully vaccinated Utahns • 419,623.

Cases reported the day before • 159.

Deaths reported the day before • None.

Hospitalizations reported the day before • 147. That hasn’t changed since Sunday. Of those currently hospitalized, 52 are in intensive care units, the same as on Sunday.

Tests reported the day before • 2,333 people were tested for the first time. A total of 4,144 people were evaluated.

Percentage of positive tests • According to the original state method, the rate is 6.8%. That’s lower than the 7-day average of 8%.

His new method counts all test results, including repeated tests on the same individual. Monday’s rate is now at 3.8%, slightly lower than the seven-day average of 4.1%.

Totals to date • 381,788 cases; 2,062 deaths; 15,293 hospitalizations; 2,334,049 people tested.

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