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Utah exceeds 600 new COVID-19 cases for the fourth day in a row

The state reports four more deaths. And there have been more than 18,000 hospitalizations since the pandemic began.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Empty vials of the Pfizer COVID19 vaccine at the Woods Cross High School pop-up clinic by Nomi Health, April 27, 2021. County and regional health districts are setting up vaccination clinics in high schools, to get the COVID-19 vaccine to 16- and 17-year-olds.

  | July 16, 2021, 7:42 p.m.

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There were 669 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Utah on Friday, the fourth consecutive day that number has been above 600. The last time that happened was Feb. 23-26. There have been a total of 2,663 new cases in the past four days.

The rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 522 per day, the highest that number has been since March 10.

Utah also reported four more deaths.

The number of Utahns fully vaccinated continued to inch up. That number now stands at 1.44 million, about 44.4% o the state’s total population.

And the number of Utahns hospitalized with the coronavirus since the pandemic began now exceeds 18,000. That’s slightly less than the population of Highland, the state’s 45th largest city, and slightly more than Centerville, the 46th largest city.

Vaccine doses administered in past day/total doses administered • 6,358 / 2,938,074.

Utahns fully vaccinated • 1,444,433.

Cases reported in past day • 669.

Deaths reported in past day • Four. One death that reported on July 15 — a Salt Lake County woman 85 or older — was removed from the coronavirus list after further testing.

Friday’s deaths are a Salt Lake County man 25-44, a Salt Lake County woman and a Tooele County man 45-64, and a Cache County woman 85-plus.

Tests reported in past day • 4,711 people were tested for the first time. A total of 8,100 people were tested.

Hospitalizations reported in the past day • 281. That’s 23 more than on Thursday. Of those currently hospitalized, 108 are in intensive care, seven more than on Thursday.

Percentage of positive tests • Under the state’s original method, the rate is 14.2%. That’s higher than the seven-day average of 13.8%.

The state’s new method counts all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual. Friday’s rate was 8.3%, lower than the seven-day average of 9.3%

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

Totals to date • 422,619 cases; 2,413 deaths; 18,020 hospitalizations; 2,852,401 people tested.

This story is developing and will be updated.