Health officials report 3226 new COVID-19 cases in Utah, 13 deaths - KSL.com

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Christine Spencer fills a syringe with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a Salt Lake County Health Department mobile site in Salt Lake City on Dec. 29, 2021. On Thursday the Utah Department of Health reported 3,226 new COVID-19 cases and 13 additional deaths. (Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health on Thursday reported 3,226 new COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths.

There has been an increase in the number of cases confirmed daily, as the health department reported an average of 379 new cases each day in the last week, compared to the daily average of 242 reported last week.

The seven-day average percentage of positive COVID-19 tests is also rising, to 12.28% at the latest report, for tests done by individual people. It was under 4% about a month ago after rising to over 50% throughout January.

Seventy-one patients are currently hospitalized with the coronavirus across Utah, with 11 of those patients receiving intensive care.

The percentage of people visiting the emergency room with COVID-19 increased from 0.89% of patients at last report, to 1.25% as of Thursday, state health officials said.

The seven-day average for people hospitalized with COVID-19 is 51.7, which is a 12.6% increase from the previous seven days; however, the average number of patients in intensive care has decreased 22.9%, to 7.4.

Using metrics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each county in the state is currently at a low transmission level for COVID-19 spread.

One of the factors used to determine this level is wastewater testing and the health department reports that 3.1% of sites show elevated COVID-19 levels. Another 37.5% sites are categorized as "watch," which is between a high and low level, and 59.4% of sites have low COVID-19 levels. None of the Utah wastewater testing sites are showing an amount of COVID-19 that is below the reporting level.

To date, Utah has confirmed 935,479 COVID-19 cases and 4,760 deaths due to the pandemic illness, according to the health department, which is still tracking the coronavirus, but reporting numbers weekly.

Correction: A previous version reported the current daily average of new COVID-19 cases as 258.7. The correct daily average for the most recent seven days is 379.

Emily Ashcraft joined KSL.com as a reporter in 2021. She covers courts and legal affairs, as well as health, faith and religion news.