facebook-pixel

Utah reports 12 deaths, more than 1,700 new COVID-19 cases

School-age children contracted more than one in five new cases.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Students wait to be tested for COVID-19 at American Preparatory Academy in Draper on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021.

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 morning. To support journalism like this, please donate or become a subscriber.

A dozen more Utahns have been added to the state’s COVID-19 death toll, bringing the total number to 2,841 who have died since the pandemic began.

Eleven of the the deaths reported Wednesday by the Utah Department of Health occurred in the past day. One occurred before Sept. 1, and was only recently confirmed to be the result of COVID-19.

In the past day, 1,724 Utahns tested positive for COVID-19. School-age children accounted for 22% of those cases, the Utah Department of Health announced — a total of 371. There were 159 cases in children aged 5 to 10; 94 cases in children 11 to 13; and 118 cases in children 14 to 18.

The rolling seven-day average for positive tests stands at 1,443 per day.

In the past four weeks, unvaccinated Utahns were 5.3 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than vaccinated people, according to a UDOH analysis. The unvaccinated also were 7.2 times more likely to be hospitalized and 6.6 times more likely to test positive for the coronavirus.

An additional 3,696 Utahns were fully vaccinated in the past day, bringing the total to 1,663,074 — 50.8% of Utah’s total population.

Vaccine doses administered in past day / total doses administered • 6,048 / 3,405,516.

Utahns fully vaccinated • 1,663,074

Cases reported in past day • 1,724.

Deaths reported in past day • 12.

There were three deaths in Davis County — two men and a woman between the ages of 65-84. Utah County also reported three deaths — a man and a woman 65-84, and a man 85-plus.

Two Salt Lake County residents died — a man 65-84, and a woman 85-plus. And two Box Elder County residents died — a man 65-84 and a woman 85-plus.

A Cache County woman 65-84 and a San Juan County woman 65-84 also died.

Tests reported in past day • 11,488 people were tested for the first time. A total of 21,531 people were tested.

Hospitalizations reported in the past day • 561. That’s 19 fewer than reported on Tuesday. Of those currently hospitalized, 227 are in intensive care, three fewer than reported on Tuesday.

Percentage of positive tests • Under the state’s original method, the rate is 15% over the past day. That is higher than the seven-day average of 13.7%.

The state’s new method counts all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual. The rate reported Wednesday was 8%, which is lower than the seven-day average of 9.8%.

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

Totals to date • 497,428 cases; 2,841 deaths; 21,600 hospitalizations; 3,382,672 people tested.

According to the state Health Department, Utah has seen 15,470 “breakthrough” cases of COVID-19 — people who contracted the virus two weeks or more after being fully vaccinated. That’s 0.9% of people who are fully vaccinated.

Of that number, 810 required hospitalization — 0.047% of those fully vaccinated. And there have been 99 deaths — 0.006% of those fully vaccinated.