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More than 1,800 new coronavirus cases reported in Utah

Four more Utahns have died of the coronavirus.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) A steady line of vehicles filled with multiple people waiting to be tested for Covid19 are tended to by members of the Utah Department of Health at the Cannon Health Building, Dec. 27, 2021.

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On Tuesday, the Utah Department of Health reported 1,816 new coronavirus cases in the past day. The rolling seven-day average now stands at 1,300.

The Health Department also confirmed four more coronavirus deaths. The state’s COVID-19 death toll since the pandemic began is now 3,774.

The number of children getting vaccinated continues to climb: 93,072 children ages 5-11 have received at least one dose since they became eligible. That’s 25.5% of kids that age in Utah, according to the health department. And 59,985 of those kids have been fully vaccinated — 16.4% of that age group.

Intensive care units in the state remain near capacity. UDOH reported Tuesday that 90.6% of all ICU beds in Utah and 95.7% of ICU beds in larger medical centers throughout the state are occupied. (Hospitals consider any figure over 85% to be functionally full.) Of all ICU patients, 36.2% are being treated for COVID-19.

Vaccine doses administered in the past day/total doses administered • 12,061 / 4,504,855.

Number of Utahns fully vaccinated • 1,892,688 — 57.9% of Utah’s total population. That is an increase of 1,679 in the past day.

Vaccination status • Health officials do not immediately have or release the vaccination status of individuals who test positive, who are hospitalized, or who die. They do calculate the overall risk ratios of these outcomes depending on vaccination status, which you can see below.

Cases reported in the past day • 1,816.

Cases among school-age children • Kids in grades K-12 accounted for 186 of the new cases announced Tuesday — 10.2% of the total. There were 62 cases reported in children aged 5-10; 44 cases in children 11-13; and 80 cases in children 14-18.

Tests reported in the past day • 7,533 people were tested for the first time. A total of 15,316 people were tested.

Deaths reported in the past day • Four.

All four who died were between the ages of 65-84 — two men and a woman in Salt Lake County, and a woman in Washington County.

Hospitalizations reported in the past day • 438. That is eight more than reported on Monday. Of those currently hospitalized, 171 are in intensive care — the same number reported on Monday.

Percentage of positive tests • Under the state’s original method, the rate is 24.1% in the past day. That is higher than the seven-day average of 11.3%.

The state’s new method counts all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual. Tuesday’s rate was 11.9%, higher than the seven-day average of 7.7%.

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

Risk ratios • In the past four weeks, unvaccinated Utahns were 18.5 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than vaccinated people, according to a Utah Department of Health analysis. The unvaccinated also were 10 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 3.4 times more likely to test positive for the coronavirus.

Totals to date • 630,126 cases; 3,774 deaths; 27,371 hospitalizations; 4,215,172 people tested.