Free antigen testing sites not needed in Cache Valley recently

Every Monday the state health department issues a list of free antigen testing sites throughout the state but in recent weeks there have been none listed in Cache Valley.

Amelia Salmanson is an epidemiologist on the Department of Health’s COVID Hotspot Team which meets weekly to determine where those sites will be.

“We look at the 14-day case rate, the seven-day percent positivity as well as our waste water data,” Salmanson explains.

She says the new data helps create a weighted formula which in recent weeks has determined the valley’s relatively low case rates mean no testing sites are necessary.

A Utah Department of Health update Monday found no new COVID-19 deaths statewide since Sunday and relatively few new cases of the coronavirus. There were 194 new cases found statewide bringing Utah’s total of positives in more than 12 months of the pandemic to 384,756.

The state reported 2,114 Utahns have lost their lives to the coronavirus, the same number as Sunday.

There have been a total of 20,673 cases in northern Utah, with 13 new positives found Monday in Cache, Box Elder and Rich Counties which comprise the Bear River Health District.

The BRHD reported Monday 71,964 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the district, 51,032 in Cache County, 19,832 in Box Elder County and 1,101 in Rich County. That means just under 16 percent of adults in the district have been immunized.

Almost 2.4 million Utahns have been tested and just over 4.2 million total tests have been administered. The rolling seven-day average of positive tests is 426 a day.

As of Monday 138 people were hospitalized with the virus, four fewer than Sunday, and there has been a total of 15,474 Utahns hospitalized since March of 2020.

The state health department said with 3,214 more vaccines administered since Sunday vaccinations now total just over 1.3 million.

The updated Monday case counts in the three southeast Idaho counties that border on northern Utah include 1,120 positive cases in Franklin County, 367 in Bear Lake County and 347 in Oneida County. Idaho’s most recent report indicates 179,763 confirmed cases and 1,957 COVID-19 deaths.

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