Governor issues executive order regarding vaccine distribution

Gov. Spencer J. Cox speaks during a COVID-19 briefing at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 8, 2021.

The state’s Friday report of COVID-19 news includes 22 more coronavirus deaths since Thursday, although six of them occurred before Dec. 21 but were added today after further investigation by the Office of the Medical Examiner. With Friday’s 22 fatalities there have been 1,381 Utah deaths since the the start of the pandemic.

Governor Spencer Cox told a press briefing Friday he would issue an executive order immediately to focus on vaccine distribution.

“If you have had a positive COVID-19 test in the past 90 days,” Gov. Cox said, “you should not receive a vaccine. I believe that number should be six months and we will be working with the CDC to change that recommendation. We have to be much more practical about our application of this virus.”

There were 186 new positives Friday in northern Utah. There have been 16,149 total cases in the Bear River district since the start of the outbreak.

A total of 574 patients in the district have been hospitalized.

Among the 16,149 positive cases over the course of the pandemic in the Bear River District 14,094 have recovered.

The state’s Friday caseload includes 3,793 positive COVID-19 infections among the 13,036 tests statewide, a 29.1 percent positivity rate the last 24 hours.

That leaves the state’s rolling seven-day average for positive tests at 3,051 and the rolling seven-day average for percent of positive laboratory tests at 32.7 percent.

The state reported a total of 89,431 vaccines have been administered as of Friday, an increase of over 21,000 from Thursday.

Utah’s new total for COVID-19 positive tests since the start of the pandemic in March has now reached 301,110. Over the course of the pandemic there have been 1,803,225 tests administered in Utah.

Across the state current hospitalizations Friday grew to 543; 196 are in intensive care units.

The latest Idaho report indicates there are 147,713 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state. There have been 1,517 COVID deaths in Idaho with 987 positive tests in Franklin County, 289 positives in Bear Lake County and 268 in Oneida County.

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