SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 6, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — New COVID-19 numbers released Monday show 70 more Utahns have tested positive in the last 24 hours; there are now 1,675 cases.
Thirteen people have died after contracting the virus and there have been 138 hospitalizations; that is 14 more than yesterday.
According to new case counts from Utah.coronavirus.gov, there has been a 4% increase in cases between Sunday and Monday; that’s down from an 11% increase in cases between Saturday and Sunday, and a 14.6% increase between Friday and Saturday.
A total of 33,394 people have been tested, which is 2,502 more than yesterday. About 5% of cases are testing positive, said state epidemiologist for the Utah Department of Health Dr. Angela Dunn said in a press briefing Monday.
Dunn added of the five deaths since yesterday: “One of these people is an individual who was hospitalized at the time of death, it was an older adult, less than age 60, from Salt Lake County. Two are from a long-term care facility outbreak we’re investigating with Salt Lake City; we identified 23 residents of the long-term care facility who are positive for COVID-19, and two staff. There were 10 residents who were negative for COVID-19, and they’ve been transferred to a sister facility, they’re housed in a separate wing and are cared for by dedicated staff. The other two deaths were in a long-term care facility in Utah County, and we’re working with Utah County to do a full investigation of this outbreak.”
The four deaths in the long-term care facilities were all individuals over the age of 60 with underlying health conditions, she added. All five deaths occurred on Saturday.
Dunn said the projected peak for number of cases in Utah is the end of April, though that may change.
She added even when we see a decline in cases, it’s important to maintain social distancing restrictions. “If we do lift restrictions too early we do risk seeing a resurgence in cases so that timing of when to lift restrictions is essential,” she said.
By area, the breakdown is as follows:
