Governor Cox Says Utah Passes One Million Vaccines; 491 new cases of COVID-19 reported on Saturday

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah officially delivered more than a million doses of the coronavirus vaccine, Governor Spencer Cox announced on Twitter on Saturday morning.

That number doesn’t quite match the Utah Department of Health’s tally of 993,168 – 25,687 more doses administered than Friday – but the discrepancy may be due to delays in reporting. Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson reported the total number of “gunshots” is 1,015,380.

A spokesperson for the health department said the administration uses internal sources that update more frequently than public sources, and Sunday’s official public tally will exceed 1 million doses.

Cox said the milestone is “incredible” and “a testament to the dedication of our public health teams and private partners.”

“Thank you to all those who have mobilized in a historic way”, he wrote. “We have just started.”

This morning, Utah officially crossed the mark of one million doses of vaccines delivered! This is an incredible milestone and testifies to the dedication of our public health teams and our private partners. Thank you to all those who mobilized in a historic way. we’ve just started.

– Spencer Cox (@SpencerJCox) March 13, 2021

The Department of Health later released its daily coronavirus update, revealing 491 new confirmed cases and four more deaths in the state.

Overall, that brings Utah to 377,983 confirmed cases and 2,021 related deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Over the past week, the state is recording an average of 510 more cases per day and a positive test rate of 4.1%. There are currently 144 Utahns hospitalized with COVID-19, including 59 in intensive care.

The four deaths reported on Saturday were:

• Davis County woman aged 65 to 84 living in long-term care facility
• Davis County man aged 65 to 84 who was hospitalized when he died
• Washington County woman aged 65 to 84 who was hospitalized
• A man between 45 and 64 who was not hospitalized when he died and whose country of origin is unknown

Currently, Utahns aged 50 and over are eligible to schedule a coronavirus vaccine, as are Utahns with certain underlying medical conditions. A list of qualifying conditions is available here.

On April 1, Utah plans to expand vaccine eligibility to all adults who want one.

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