SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - There is bad news in the Utah State Health Department's latest swine flu situation report, but there's good news as well. The bad news is there were five more deaths associated with swine flu reported since a week ago.
The good news is the effects of the swine flu have not worsened when it comes to hospitalizations which have held steady or declined slightly over the past two weeks.
One person, a woman between 50-64 years old died in Salt Lake County within the past week, with another two Salt Lake County victims who died before the health department submitted their report last Thursday. One of them was a woman between 25-49 years old and another was a man between 50-64 years old.
A Utah County woman older than 65 also passed away and a man between 25-49 died in the southeast part of the state.
Health officials say the swine flu is spreading steadily, but no more than expected.
Dr. Rachael Herlighy of the Utah Department of Health told ABC4's Ross Becker, "Even though the number of hospitalizations are down and the number of outpatient cases are down, we really still think that the amount of influenza is very high especially for this time of year and it's quite possible several weeks from now we will see more illness and there will be more of a resurgence."
The Wednesday report from the Health Department also shows that the amount of vaccine available in the state is growing and more is expected. However, vaccinations statewide are still restricted to the priority groups.
Stay tuned to ABC 4 News and ABC4.com for all your H1N1 information.
