facebook-pixel

More than a third of eligible Utahns are fully vaccinated against COVID-19

Two more Utahns die of the coronavirus, and 200 more cases are reported.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) People line up for the vaccine on Thursday, March 18, 2021, as the Utah Film Studios in Park City loans its space to the Summit County Health Department as a drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination station.

Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune is providing free access to critical stories about the coronavirus. Sign up for our Top Stories newsletter, sent to your inbox every weekday morning. To support journalism like this, please donate or become a subscriber.

The number of Utahns fully vaccinated against COVID-19 is rising toward 800,000. Just over a third of the eligible population (34.4%) of residents ages 16 and older have received either both doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

And it was a typically slow Sunday, with relatively few tests (just over 5,000), relatively few new cases reported (200), and relatively few vaccinations (just over 1,300). Two more Utahns died of the coronavirus, according to the Utah Department of Health, bringing the state’s overall death toll from COVID-19 to 2,166.

Vaccine doses administered in past day/total doses administered • 1,326 / 1,898,857.

Utahns fully vaccinated • 791,734.

Cases reported in past day • 200.

Deaths reported in past day • Two, both in Weber County — a man and a woman, each between the ages of 45 and 64.

Tests reported in past day • 2,695 people were tested for the first time. A total of 5,021 people were tested.

Hospitalizations reported in past day • 138. That’s up five from Sunday. Of those currently hospitalized, 54 are in intensive care units — one fewer than on Sunday.

Percentage of positive tests • Under the state’s original method, the rate is 7.4%. That’s higher than the seven-day average of 6.9%.

The state’s new method counts all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual. Monday’s rate was 4.0%, higher than the seven-day average of 3.5%.

[Read more: Utah is changing how it measures the rate of positive COVID-19 tests. Here’s what that means.]

Totals to date • 392,957 cases; 2,166 deaths; 15,922 hospitalizations; 2,493,089 people tested.

On Monday, the Utah Department of Health made a change to the way it counts the number of COVID-19 tests per day. Previously, it had reported one test per person per day.

But because of the use of antigen tests, which are often confirmed by PCR tests within the same day, UDOH is now reporting these confirmatory tests in its total test number. The percentage of positive tests will still be calculated with one test per person per day.