The Utah Department of Health reported a slight increase in the statewide average of new COVID-19 cases on Friday.
After a steady drop in the statewide averages for positive tests and the percent of positive tests over the past few weeks, those numbers flattened and even increased slightly on Friday.
Friday’s 2,649 cases saw the seven-day average for positive tests rise to 1,860 per day. Thursday’s average of 1,829 was the lowest since early November of last year.
The seven-day average for the percent of positive laboratory tests has held steady at roughly 19% this week, the lowest since late October 2020.
Wasatch County reported 26 new cases on Friday compared to Summit County’s 41. Both county’s trends have more or less mirrored statewide averages, but both counties are currently experiencing higher averages for the percent of positive laboratory tests. Wasatch County has seen its average rise over 3% since January 15th, now sitting at 27.7%.
The Health Department also reported 41 fewer statewide hospitalizations on Friday, with 488 people currently hospitalized with the disease. Statewide referral center ICU capacity is now 92.1%.
24 additional COVID-19 deaths were also reported across Utah, none of which were from either Summit or Wasatch Counties.
Over 207,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered as of Friday and Governor Cox said this week that nearly all of the state’s vaccines that are over one week old have been used. The Governor issued an executive order earlier this month requiring vaccination facilities to administer their doses within one week of receiving them.
