Update: Utah has 346 confirmed cases of COVID-19; 48 new cases in 24 hours

Photo Courtesy: cdc.gov

UTAH, March 25, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah now has a total of 346 confirmed cases of COVID-19, that’s 49 new cases in 24 hours. The death toll, according to the Utah Department of Health, remains at one.

That was the word Wednesday afternoon when it was announced that 6,837 Utahns had been tested for the virus up to this point.

According to Coronavirus.utah.gov, the highest number of cases are in Salt Lake County, which has 151 resident cases and three visitor cases.

Summit County has 89 resident cases and eight visitor cases.

Davis County has 35 resident cases.

Wasatch County has 15 resident cases and one visitor case.

Utah County has 18 resident cases and one visitor case.

Weber-Morgan Counties have 10 resident cases, while Southwest Utah has five resident cases and one visitor case.

Bear River has six resident cases.

Tooele County has three resident cases.

Central Utah, San Juan, Southeast Utah, and the Tri-County area have no confirmed cases.

Utah State Epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said in a press briefing Wednesday afternoon about five percent of people who are tested are testing positive; she said states that have more widespread transmission are seeing much higher positive rates in their pool of testing.

“I think we can be confident that we are bending the curve here in Utah with our social distancing measures and protecting the health of Utahns because we are seeing those low positive rates,” Dunn said. “We are not seeing an exponential increase in cases day-to-day and that’s a good sign. We encourage Utahns to remain being vigilant; staying in small groups, staying home, especially if you’re vulnerable, and only leaving the house for critical services, and hopefully we’ll see a decline in the rate of cases we see every day.”

Dunn said testing is open to anyone showing symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever or respiratory symptoms, like a cough. People can call their own clinician or use Telehealth and Dunn said there are also drive-through sites set up; the COVID-19 hotline has the location of those sites. There is no need to seek testing if you don’t have symptoms consistent with the virus, Dunn said.

She added that most people receive their test results within about 48 hours.

The vast majority of cases are in adults; the number of children that have contracted the virus remains relatively low.

“What we know about COVID-19 so far is that children seem to have very mild illness, and don’t have the severe cases of COVID-19 leading to hospitalization,” Dunn said. “Children are tending to recover on their own; their immune system is fighting off COVID-19. However, they can be very good spreaders of the disease so we’re asking if any children are sick, keep them at home and keep them away from older adults who might be more vulnerable.”

The one known fatality has been identified as a 79-year-old man from Bountiful who was being treated at Lakeview Hospital in Davis County.

“He had underlying medical conditions, and was hospitalized for two days prior to his death,” the statement said.

Updated numbers can be viewed on a new dashboard at coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts

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