On Thursday evening, the Southeast Utah Health Department announced that the entire region is now in the high transmission level for COVID-19. This includes Carbon, Emery and Grand counties.
There are 158 active cases of the virus, including 94 in Carbon County, 37 in Emery County and 27 in Grand County. Of these cases, 79 have been reported in the past three days. This includes 56 in Carbon County, 18 in Emery County and five in Grand County.
While schools continue to offer in-person learning, the health department is tracking cases at each school and district. Currently, there are 22 active cases from the Carbon School District, nine from the Emery School District and five from the Grand School District. These numbers include students and staff that have contracted the virus.
Five regional patients are currently hospitalized due to complications from the virus with three from Carbon County and two from Emery County. The region has recorded 36 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, including 20 from Carbon County, 12 from Emery County and four from Grand County.
While active cases continue to be tracked, vaccine distribution remains a priority for the health department. To date, 16,841 Southeast Utah residents have been fully vaccinated. In total, 17,485 have received their first dose.
There have been 86 breakthrough cases of COVID-19, which are those that became infected by the virus despite being vaccinated. Of those, two have been hospitalized and one has died.
The breakthrough cases have occurred in .511% of the vaccinated population.