SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health reported 8,706 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, an increase of 86 cases, or 1% since Tuesday.
It is one of the smallest daily increases since the pandemic first hit Utah in mid-March.
But another four deaths were also reported on Wednesday, including a Utah County man and a Weber County woman, both between ages 60 and 85; a Weber County woman older than 85, and a Salt Lake County woman between 18 and 64.
Both Weber County deaths were residents at a long-term care facility, and the others died while hospitalized, according to the health department.
Information about the number of cases, as well as the most common risk factors are available online at coronavirus.utah.gov.
Utah’s Public Health and Economic Emergency Commission recommended on Wednesday, however, that the state provide even more data regarding risk factors to further pinpoint who is more likely to experience severe illness should they contract COVID-19.
“Establishing a better understanding of how many new infections are in high-risk populations will help experts project future risk to the state’s health care system,” a letter from commission members, including elected officials and representatives from private and public entities, said.
The number of COVID-19 cases alone, the commission believes, is not a good indicator of risk “because 99% of Utahns who contract COVID-19 recover.”
State data shows that from mid-March to now, more than 30% of the people hospitalized with COVID-19 who are over the age of 65 have cardiovascular disease, while just 7% between 25 and 44 have cardiovascular disease.
Diabetes and kidney disease might also prove to be more of a risk factor for younger people who contract the novel coronavirus, according to the data, the commission states.
And the data also show that middle-aged people, between 45 and 64 years old, who have two or more underlying conditions and contract COVID-19 end up hospitalized, whereas about 1 in 5 people 65 or older who have no known underlying conditions are hospitalized.
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders who test positive with COVID-19 have been two times more likely to be hospitalized than Asians who contract the virus in Utah.
“We know much more about who’s at high risk of complications when contracting COVID-19,” retired Maj. Gen. Jefferson Burton, co-chairman of the commission and acting director of the Utah Department of Health, said in a statement.
“Armed with this information, we can form better state strategies for protecting the vulnerable. We can help those who are not vulnerable transition back to work while taking precautions not to infect those who are.”
A total of 716 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19 in Utah, whereas, 96 are currently receiving hospital care. Another 31 people in Utah hospitals are being treated for coronavirus-like symptoms, but are awaiting confirmation of coronavirus testing, health department data shows.
The Utah health department has reported that 94.1% of the people who have died with COVID-19 in the state were 65 or older and had some underlying condition, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, hypertension and cancer — all of which are deemed high-risk by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The average age of people who have died with COVID-19 in Utah is 74 and 80% of all people who have died had at least one underlying health risk factor.
Knowing more about those risk factors, the commission said, would help state leaders make better decisions dealing with transitioning to lower risk status. Utah is currently acting in a low-risk, or “yellow” category of its Utah Leads Together economic recovery plan, which was implemented on March 14 and is just one step away from a return to normal societal procedure.
Officials consider not only disease transmission rates and community spread, which are reported daily, but also hospital use rates, and perceived risk to vulnerable populations.
Burton last week said that hospitalization rates haven’t exceeded 60% in the last month and intensive care beds have been even more available, with a reported 11% used in recent weeks. And just 4% of non-ICU beds available in Utah have been occupied with COVID-19 patients.
The health department estimates that 5,499 people with confirmed cases in Utah have recovered, since they have not been reported to have died after three weeks with the illness.
The latest breakdown of Utah cases, hospitalizations and deaths by health district:
- Salt Lake County, 4,682; 426 hospitalized; 70 deaths.
- Utah County, 1,753; 98 hospitalized; 15 deaths.
- Davis County, 424; 38 hospitalized; 2 deaths.
- Summit County, 407; 37 hospitalized; 0 deaths.
- Southwest Utah, 335; 26 hospitalized; 4 deaths.
- Weber-Morgan, 273; 30 hospitalized; 6 deaths.
- San Juan County, 272; 28 hospitalized; 5 deaths.
- Wasatch County, 258; 11 hospitalized; 1 death.
- Tooele County, 115; 6 hospitalized; 0 deaths.
- Bear River, 111; 13 hospitalized; 2 deaths.
- Central Utah, 33; 2 hospitalized; 0 deaths.
- Southeast Utah, 23; 0 hospitalized; 0 deaths.
- TriCounty (Uinta Basin), 20; 1 hospitalized; 0 deaths.