Utah — Over the last year, more than 2,100 Utahns died from COVID-19. Each was a loved family member, neighbor, or friend.
As the anniversary of the first COVID-19 death in Utah approached, KSL Investigators wanted to know which communities were hit hardest with fatal coronavirus cases.
Through a public records request, investigators obtained zip code data from the Utah Department of Health on where deaths occurred and assembled it into an interactive map.
The data was accurate as of April 6, 2021. At that time, Utah had 2,137 total deaths occur in 187 of the state’s 288 zip codes.
Thirty deaths were listed as “unknown” zip code.
The zip codes with the most coronavirus deaths occurred as follows:
- 84770 (St. George area) — 61 deaths
- 84790 (St. George area) — 61 deaths
- 84604 (Lindon-Orem-Provo) — 53 deaths
- 84015 (West Point-Clearfield-Clinton) — 53 deaths
- 84404 (Ogden area) — 45 deaths
Using data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, we found 31 of these cumulative 273 deaths were long-term care facility residents who died of COVID-19. These deaths account for 11.3% of COVID deaths in the above zip codes as of April 4, 2021.
The Utah Department of Health did not provide specific numbers of deaths if the number was smaller than five but more than zero, citing privacy issues. Those cases are notated on the map as “fewer than 5.”
Any zip code not represented on the map means either no deaths were reported from that zip code, or no data was provided from the state health department.
