Eight More Utahns Die From COVID-19; Over 200K 2nd Vaccine Doses Given

Feb 20, 2021, 12:45 PM | Updated: 12:58 pm

Hundreds of teachers and staff members in Utah County's Alpine School District received the COVID-19 vaccine in January 2021. (KSL-TV)

(KSL-TV)

BY JOSH ELLIS, KSL TV

KSLTV.com

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Officials with the Utah Department of Health reported eight Utahns have lost their lives to COVID-19, and 778 more have tested positive for the virus.

The state administered 18,383 more vaccines and 242 people were hospitalized with the virus as of Saturday.

This article is being updated. For more information, visit coronavirus.utah.gov.

Testing

UDOH reports 2,158,136 Utahns have been tested so far, which is an increase of 6,892 people tested since Friday.

Of those, a total of 366,034 people have tested positive for COVID-19. That’s an increase of 778 new cases since Friday’s report.

The rolling 7-day average for positive tests was 779 per day.

The rolling 7-day average for percent positivity of “people over people” dropped slightly to 13.52%, and the rolling 7-day average for percent positivity of “tests over tests” was 6.12%.

"We will also report percent positivity based on the total positive tests divided by the total number of tests administered. We call this the "test over test" method, this method is now used by at least 37 other states and provides a better comparison between what is happening across the country. This method accounts for people who have repeat positive or negative test results and more accurately reflects our increase in testing. It biases the percent positivity lower in the current testing environment. (UDOH)

One measure is determined by dividing the total of unique individuals who tested positive by the unique number of people tested. We call this the "people over people" method. This method does not account for people who have had repeat positive or negative tests in the past 90 days. This is the method we've been using to report percent positive since the beginning of the pandemic. It biases the percent positivity higher in the current testing environment. (UDOH)

Note from UDOH: “The UDOH is now reporting two measures of percent positivity. One measure is determined by dividing the total of unique individuals who tested positive by the unique number of people tested. We call this the “people over people” method. This method does not account for people who have had repeat positive or negative tests in the past 90 days. This is the method we’ve been using to report percent positive since the beginning of the pandemic. It biases the percent positivity higher in the current testing environment.

“We will also report percent positivity based on the total positive tests divided by the total number of tests administered. We call this the “test over test” method, this method is now used by at least 37 other states and provides a better comparison between what is happening across the country. This method accounts for people who have repeat positive or negative test results and more accurately reflects our increase in testing. It biases the percent positivity lower in the current testing environment.

“While the specific percent positivity will be different between the two methods, the overall trends for each are very similar.

“You can watch a discussion of these two methods here, or can read more about them here.”

Hospitalizations

There were 242 people hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 99 of those people were in intensive care units. Another 18 people were hospitalized with suspected cases of COVID-19.

Utah’s ICUs were 76.9% full Saturday, and the ICU beds in referral centers were 81.3% full.

Referral Centers are the 16 hospitals in Utah with the capability to provide the best care for patients with COVID-19. Because most patients are transferred to these facilities, their utilization is the best reflection of the true hospital capacity in Utah when looking at ICU beds.

(UDOH)

Deaths

State health officials reported eight more Utahns have died as a direct result of COVID-19.

To date, 1,842 of the state’s residents have been killed by the pandemic.

The following individuals’ deaths were reported Saturday:

Female, older than 85, Weber County resident, hospitalized at time of death
Female, older than 85, Salt Lake County resident, not hospitalized at time of death
Female, between 45-64, Utah County resident, hospitalized at time of death
Male, between 65-84, Salt Lake County resident, hospitalized at time of death
Female, between 65-84, Weber County resident, hospitalized at time of death
Male, between 65-84, Salt Lake County resident, hospitalized at time of death
Female, between 65-84, Salt Lake County resident, hospitalized at time of death
Male, between 45-64, Salt Lake County resident, hospitalized at time of death