UTAH, Sept. 11, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — The Utah Department of Health has reported one more COVID-19 death and a spike of 626 newly reported cases in the past 24 hours.
“Today’s caseload growth is the largest daily net increase we have reported since late July,” Dr. Angela Dunn, state epidemiologist, said in a statement accompanying the daily report.
“We are looking closely at the numbers, and want to reiterate, as we have throughout this response, that one day of data does not necessarily indicate a trend.”
Dunn noted that many testing locations were closed Monday for Labor Day and Tuesday due to the wind storm.
“It’s possible people who would have been tested Monday and Tuesday waited until later in the week to be tested, resulting in an increase in the number of positive cases identified today,” Dunn noted.
“Even with today’s increase, our 7-day rolling average of 403 cases per day is still lower than last Friday’s 7-day rolling average of 409 cases per day.”
The Utahn who died was a Salt Lake County man, older than 85 and not hospitalized at the time of death. His death bring Utah’s documented COVID death toll to 431.
The 656 new, lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases bring Utah’s cumulative total to 56,675 positive cases.
Dunn said that of the new cases, 73% are from Salt Lake County (40%) and Utah County (33%); and 40% are among people between ages 15 and 24.
Tests performed in Utah stand at 707,807. That’s an increase of 4,041 tests in the past 24 hours.
The rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 402 per day. The rolling seven-day average for percent of positive laboratory tests is 9.0%.
Currently, 123 Utahns are hospitalized for COVID-19. Total hospitalizations from the beginning of the outbreak are 3,288.
Patients classified as recovered, defined as still alive three weeks after diagnosis, stand at 48,021. It is common for COVID-19 patients to die more than three weeks after diagnosis.
The chart below shows the numbers broken down by area of the state.
