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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah health officials reported 5,611 new COVID-19 cases and 12 additional deaths over the past seven days.
The daily average for new cases was just under 802 per day, according to the latest data from the Utah Department of Health. That is an increase of about 159 cases per day compared to the previous week.
Most of the deaths reported so far in May occurred in previous months, data shows.
Across the state, 138 additional coronavirus hospitalizations were added to the state's tally. The percentage of emergency room visits by patients with COVID-19 increased slightly from 2.23% to 2.88%.
Virus levels were elevated or increasing at 26.5% of testing sites, the same as the previous Thursday, May 19.
Despite the ongoing rise in cases, every county in Utah except for Summit is seeing low community transmission levels of COVID-19 according to guidelines from the Centers for Disease and Prevention. Summit County is experiencing a medium transmission rate.
But the rise in cases still does not give the full picture of the coronavirus situation in the state, health officials have noted, as far fewer people are getting tested. State-sponsored testing centers closed in March, and many people use at-home rapid tests, but those results are not reported.
Intermountain Healthcare doctors said last week the current surge is caused by subvariants of the omicron strain. With the original omicron variant, symptoms largely affected the upper respiratory system. Health officials don't yet have enough experience with the subvariants to see how much they differ from that variant.
Health care workers administered 2,237 COVID-19 vaccine doses during the past seven days. Now 2,274,378 residents have received at least one dose; 67.3% are considered fully vaccinated; and 35.3% of those ages 12 and older have received a booster shot.
In the last 28 days, unvaccinated Utahns had a 1.4 times greater chance of testing positive for COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated and a 1.4 times greater chance of requiring hospitalization, according to the latest data from the Utah Department of Health.
Compared to those who were fully vaccinated and boosted, unvaccinated residents had a 0.8 times greater chance of testing positive for COVID-19 and a 1.9 times greater risk of hospitalization due to the coronavirus, the data shows.
Now, there have been 948,979 cases confirmed in Utah since the beginning of the pandemic, as well as 4,777 deaths due to the disease.
