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.
The Utah Department of Health on Friday reported 11,126 new coronavirus cases in the past day.
That’s down from 12,990 on Thursday, but it’s the second-highest daily total reported since the pandemic began. Before last week, the highest number of new Utah cases reported in a single day was 4,706 in December 2020.
Utah has averaged 9,827 new cases a day for the past week — the highest that rolling seven-day average has been since the pandemic began. Before last week, the highest that figure had ever been was 3,392, reported in November 2020.
As of Friday, 22 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 at Primary Children’s Hospital — the highest number hospitalized since the pandemic began, Dr. Andrew Pavia, the chief infectious diseases physician at Utah’s largest children’s hospital said in a news conference.
Kids in grades K-12 accounted for 2,792 of the new cases announced Friday — 25.1% of the total. There were 616 cases reported in children aged 5-10; 500 cases in children 11-13; and 1,681 cases in children 14-18.
Hospitalizations also continue to climb, with 672 Utahns concurrently hospitalized with the coronavirus — the highest number of any day during the pandemic. Before this week, the highest hospital count on a single day was 606 patients, in December 2020.
At that time, more patients required intensive care: 213, versus the 182 patients with COVID in Utah’s ICUs as of Friday. But hospital staffing is tighter now than it was in 2020, Utah’s hospital administrators have said.
ICUs in the state’s larger, “referral” hospitals were at 93.9% capacity — above the 85% threshold that hospital administrators have said is necessary to leave room for unpredictable staffing levels, new patients and availability of specialized equipment and personnel.
Statewide, 91.9% of all ICU beds are filled.
The Utah Department of Health on Friday also reported eight more COVID-19 deaths in the past day. One of those deaths occurred before Dec. 14 and was only recently confirmed to have been caused by the coronavirus, the health department advised.
This story is developing and will be updated.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/33ln4nt
Post a Comment