Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health on Thursday reported 1,197 new COVID-19 cases over the past seven days, as well as four additional deaths.
The new cases mark a slight increase over the previous two weeks, when the state confirmed an average of about 100 new cases each day.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox acknowledged during his monthly news conference on Thursday that the state is seeing a slight rise in cases and hospitalizations due to a subvariant of omicron, but he said hospital officials are not concerned.
Some areas are reporting slight case increases, but some are seeing decreases.
"We will probably see a small surge, but nothing that's of concern to them," Cox said, pointing to the state's vaccination rate and natural immunity through previous infection to protect against serious disease.
While public health officials continue monitoring the coronavirus, the response largely lies in the hands of the health care sector, the governor noted.
"We still talk to our epidemiologist, our public health leaders in the state. We talk about what we're seeing across the country and across the world, and what we're seeing internally," Cox said.
Leaders are now relying on the health care system, including public health, to treat the pandemic the way other diseases are treated, Cox added.
Visits to emergency rooms by people with COVID-19 also increased from 0.51% of all patients the week prior, to 0.68%. The state confirmed 51 additional hospitalized cases over the past week.
On Thursday, a total of 67 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 across Utah.
Wastewater testing shows increased or elevated levels of the virus at 25% of testing sites, a slight uptick from previous reports, according to the health department data.
Health care workers administered 6,060 vaccine doses throughout the week. Now, 66.8% of people in Utah ages 5 and older are considered fully vaccinated, and 34.5% of ages 12 and older have received booster shots.
For more information and state COVID-19 data, visit coronavirus.utah.gov.
