Infectious diseases doctor says variants from India are in Utah

Contagious COVID-19 variants from India have been identified in Utah, according to Dr. Brandon Webb, an infectious diseases physician at Intermountain Healthcare.

Right now they’ve been very far and few between,” Webb told reporters Friday.

He said studies are underway now to determine how effective the vaccines are against the new India variants.

“There’s a tremendous amount of attention being given to that within the scientific community. We do know that the vaccines are very effective against the strains that are currently circulating in the United States that are dominant.”

New positive cases of coronavirus grew by 300 in Utah Friday with 10 new cases in northern Utah. In 14 months of the pandemic there have been 403,984 cases in Utah. At the same time there have been 21,797 positive cases in Cache, Box Elder and Rich counties.

There have been 911 COVID-19 hospitalizations in northern Utah. The total number of patients considered “recovered” in the district is 21,439.

The Utah Health Department Friday reported 10 new COVID-19 deaths, nine of which occurred before April 21, 2021. There have now been 2,289 coronavirus fatalities in Utah over the course of the pandemic.

Since Thursday 18,716 vaccine doses were administered statewide and total doses in the arms of Utahns during the pandemic has reached more than 2.48 million.

The list of Utahns who are fully vaccinated has reached 1,144,733 which is about 35 percent of Utah’s population. Nearly 44 percent of the population has received at least one dose.

The rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 284 a day. The rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of “people over people” is 6.4 percent. The rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of “tests over tests” is 3.4 percent.

There are currently 136 Utahs hospitalized with the coronavirus, three fewer than Thursday. There are 54 people in intensive care units which is three fewer than on Thursday. A total of 16,638 people have been hospitalized during the pandemic.

In Idaho there have been 2,080 coronavirus fatalities and there are 190,900  confirmed coronavirus cases. In the three southeast Idaho counties case counts include 1,194 positive cases in Franklin County, 386 in Bear Lake County and 362 in Oneida County.

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