PROVO, Utah – Fewer COVID-19 testing sites are open on weekends, which may play into fewer new cases reported by the Utah Department of Health on Sunday.
Either way, new case numbers are trending downward.
Another 248 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths were reported on Sunday, whereas 344 new cases of the highly contagious disease were reported last Sunday and nearly 200 fewer cases than were reported two weeks ago.
It has been a week since the statewide mask mandate was rescinded, after a new law, HB294 went into effect in Utah. Utah was the latest in nearly a dozen states that have repealed mandates on face coverings a year into fighting the pandemic illness, though masks are still required throughout Salt Lake City and at schools throughout the state, and at gatherings and events of 50 people or more, according to the law.
Most local health departments and private partners, however, continue to offer the COVID-19 vaccine on Saturdays, and administered 17,268 doses of COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday, according to Sunday’s report from the health department.
In all, nearly 1.9 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in Utah since the first doses were given in December, resulting in 1,190,819 people having received at least one dose and 791,340 who are fully vaccinated.
Half of all adults across the United States have received at least one COVID-19 shot, according to a Sunday report from The Associated Press. The AP states that almost 84 million adults, or 32.5% of America’s population, have been fully vaccinated. The country ranks fifth in the speed of its efforts toward mass vaccination, behind Israel, United Arab Emirates, Chile and the United Kingdom, according to Our World in Data, an online research organization.
The vaccines, either manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, as well as a third from Johnson & Johnson, which is currently not being administered, are available to all Utahns age 16 and older. To make an appointment or learn more information the vaccine, visit coronavirus.utah.gov.
The state has now tested 2,490,394 people for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, utilizing 4,475,591 tests, since March 2020.
The rolling seven-day average number of positive tests is now 394 per day, which is 3,6% of all tests, with an average 7.1% of people tested ending up with COVID-19 diagnoses, according to the health department.
There are 133 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Utah hospitals, down from 140 people hospitalized on Saturday, and 143 reported a week ago.
There have been 2,164 people in Utah who have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
