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More Utah health care workers received the COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday — on a day the state’s health department reported nearly 3,000 new cases of the disease.
The 2,928 cases of COVID-19 reported Wednesday nudged up the weekly average for the number of new diagnoses, but the average rate of positive tests is sliding down slowly.
For the past week, the state has averaged 2,600 new positive test results a day, up slightly from the 2,540 average recorded Tuesday, the Utah Department of Health reported.
Utah’s death toll from the coronavirus rose to 1,096 on Wednesday, with 19 fatalities reported since Tuesday.
The 19 Utahns whose deaths from COVID-19 were reported Wednesday were:
• A Davis County man between the ages of 65 and 84.
• Eight Salt Lake County men: One between 25 and 44, one between 45 and 64, two between 65 and 84, and four older than 85.
• Three Salt Lake County women: Two between 65 and 84, and one older than 85.
• Three Utah County men: Two between 45 and 64, and one between 65 and 84.
• A Utah County woman between 25 and 44.
• A Wasatch County man older than 85.
• A Washington County woman between 65 and 84.
• A Weber County man older than 85.
More than 200 health care workers at University of Utah Hospital received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday and Wednesday, said Dr. Russell Findlay, manager of pharmacy support services at University of Utah Health.
University Hospital claimed the honor Tuesday of giving out the first vaccines in Utah to a handful of front-line health care workers. Four nurses at LDS Hospital, a few miles away, got that facility’s first doses about 90 minutes later.
As of Tuesday afternoon, just under 100 staff members at LDS Hospital had received the vaccine, said Lance Madigan, a spokesman for Intermountain Healthcare, which operates the hospital.
Two other Intermountain hospitals, Utah Valley Hospital in Provo and Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, were expected to administer 200 doses each on Wednesday, Madigan said. They, along with LDS Hospital and Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, planned to give out 200 to 400 doses each on Thursday, Madigan said.
University Hospital aims to administer 500 doses a day or more by next week, Findlay said. “We have this laser focus of administering it as soon as we can,” Findlay said.
So far, Findlay and Madigan said, Utah hospital workers have not reported any serious side effects from the vaccine.
Front-line health workers will receive the first wave of vaccines in Phase 1 of Utah’s distribution plan, said Tom Hudachko, UDOH spokesman.
After those workers, Phase 1 will cover, roughly in order:
• Staff and residents at long-term care facilities.
• Health care workers who work outside hospitals.
• Schoolteachers and school staff.
• Protective services — such as firefighters, police and correctional officers.
Those groups represent 267,000 Utahns, Hudachko said — though it’s not guaranteed that every one of them will get the vaccine.
Phase 1 should be completed by February. Phase 2, starting in March, covers a wide variety of groups at higher risk for both contracting the coronavirus and getting more sick from it.
The groups covered in Phase 2 includes people who can’t work from home — such as food, restaurant and grocery workers. Other groups in Phase 2 include tribal communities, minority communities, people over 65, people who live in homeless shelters or are experiencing homelessness, and incarcerated people.
The question of which groups go first in Phase 2 is still being determined, Hudachko said. A UDOH panel of health experts will make recommendations to the governor’s office, which has the final word.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 held steady Wednesday, with 556 patients concurrently admitted, UDOH reported.
The positivity rate for tests, on a seven-day average, dropped slightly, to 23.02%. That’s still a high rate, which health experts say indicates that many people are infected and can be spreading the virus without knowing it.
UDOH reported that 10,508 tests had been processed since Tuesday.
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