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Another 2,731 Utahns contract COVID-19, and nearly 20% of them are school-age kids

The state’s coronavirus death toll increases by 12.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Nurse Melanie Bills administers a COVID-19 vaccine to University of Utah student Eddie Overbay in Salt Lake City on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021.

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More than 2,700 Utahns tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend, and 12 more Utahns have died from the disease.

There were 1,221 cases reported on Friday, 863 on Saturday, and 647 on Sunday, for a total of 2,731 and a daily average of just over 910, the Utah Department of Health reported Monday. UDOH also removed 13 previous cases from the COVID-19 statistics, after further testing, so the overall count rose by 2,718 cases.

(The number of tests — and the number of new cases — generally decreases on the weekends, particularly on Sundays.)

Nearly 1 in 5 of the new cases was a school-age child — 203 cases among children 5-10, 132 cases 11-13, and 199 cases 14-18.

The average case count over the past three days is 60 less than it was one week ago (970 on Aug. 16). It’s about 26% higher than it was a month ago (669 on July 23), and more than six times what it was three months ago (148 on May 23). Six months ago, there were 823 new cases (on Feb. 23); and a year ago, there were 249 new cases (Aug. 23, 2020).

The rolling seven-day average of new cases stands at 1,084 — the highest since Feb. 8.

In the past four weeks, unvaccinated Utahns were 5.1 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than vaccinated people, according to a UDOH analysis. The unvaccinated were also 6.4 times more likely to be hospitalized, and five times more likely to test positive from the coronavirus.

An additional 9,983 Utahns were fully vaccinated in the past day, bringing the total to 1,548,921 — 47.3% of Utah’s total population.

According to UDOH, there have been 8,464 “breakthrough” cases of COVID-19 in Utah — people who contracted the virus two weeks or more after being fully vaccinated. That’s 1 in every 183 people who are fully vaccinated.

Of that number, 482 have been hospitalized, or 1 in about every 3,214 fully vaccinated people. And there have been 39 deaths, or 1 in about every 39,716 fully vaccinated people.

Vaccine doses administered in past three days/total doses administered • 20,896 / 3,195,877.

Utahns fully vaccinated • 1,548,921.

Cases reported in past three days • 2,731.

Deaths reported in past three days • 12. Half of the deaths reported Monday were of Utahns below the age of 65.

Four counties each reported two deaths: a man 25-44 and a man 65-84 in Davis County; a man and a woman 45-64 in Utah County; a man 45-64 and a man 65-84 in Washington County; and a man 45-64 and a man 85-plus in Weber County.

Other deaths were a Cache County man 65-84, a Daggett County man 65-84, an Iron County man 65-84, and a Salt Lake County man 45-64.

Two of the deaths occurred before Aug. 1, according to UDOH.

Tests reported in past three days • 17,564 people were tested for the first time. A total of 28,929 people were tested.

Hospitalizations reported in the past day • 431. That’s 12 more than on Friday. Of those currently hospitalized, 173 are in intensive care, 15 more than on Friday.

Percentage of positive tests • Under the state’s original method, the rate is 15.4%. That’s higher than the seven-day average of 14.7%.

The state’s new method counts all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual. Monday’s rate was 9.4%, lower than the seven-day average of 10.5%.

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

Totals to date • 454,373 cases; 2,584 deaths; 19,738 hospitalizations; 3,068,761 people tested.