SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 19, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah has had 78 cases of the coronavirus confirmed, Dr. Angela Dunn, State of Utah epidemiologist, said at a news conference Thursday.
Hardest hit is Salt Lake County, with 29 local and two visitor cases, then Summit County, with 19 local and seven visitor cases. Higher exposure was expected, Dunn said, due to the dense population in Salt Lake County and the tourism industry in Summit County.
Some 1,520 people have been tested, although more patients may have been tested privately and not yet reported to the Department of Health, Dunn said.
The number of potential cases that can be tested in Utah is limited by available supplies, Dunn said, but the treatment of people with mild symptoms remains the same regardless of testing. Dunn said patients are advised to self-isolate and recover at home.
Pres. Donald Trump said in a news conference that alternate drugs already is use for other ailments, but that show promise for treating COVID-19, will be fast-tracked for FDA approval.
Dunn said some of the drugs mentioned by Trump will require a longer approval period because existing studies have been small. One study of a drug for malaria, which shows some promise against COVID-19, has only undergone tests involving 40 or so patients, she said.
Asked how long pandemics can last, Dunn said “because its is a novel disease, we don’t have the ability to actually predict how long it will last,” but we could “easily expect it to last 15 months.”
Measures put in place, including social isolation and vigilant hygiene, will decrease exposure and the number of infected, depending on how many people strictly adhere to those suggested measures, she said. And fewer exposures will lead to fewer infections and fewer deaths.
To date, Utah has had no deaths as a result of COVID-19 infections, Dunn said.
Cases by area
To see Utah’s documented COVID-19 numbers, by county or area, see the list below:
Bear River — Three local cases
Central Utah — No cases
Davis County — Six local cases
Salt Lake County — 29 local cases, two visitor cases
San Juan County — No cases
Southeast Utah — No cases
Southwest Utah — One local case
Summit County — 19 local cases, seven visitor cases
Tooele County — One local case
TriCounty — No cases
Utah County — Two local cases, one visitor case
Wasatch County — Three local cases
Weber-Morgan — Four local cases
State totals — 68 local cases, 10 visitor cases
