SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 8, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah has documented 108 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, according to new numbers reported Tuesday by the Utah Department of Health at its coronavirus update site.
The number of cases statewide now totals 1,846, up from 1,738 Tuesday.
There was a 5.8% increase in cases between Tuesday and Wednesday, while Monday through Tuesday the increase was 3.7%. There was a 4% increase in cases between Sunday and Monday, down from the 11% increase in cases between Saturday and Sunday and a 14.6% increase between Friday and Saturday.
New test numbers show 36,116 patients have been tested; about 5% of these patients are testing positive.
Hospitalizations for serious cases stand at 158, with 13 reported deaths.
At a press briefing Wednesday, Gov. Gary Herbert announced that anyone over 18 years old traveling to Utah as their final destination from either the Salt Lake City International Airport or coming in on Utah’s freeways will have to complete a travel declaration. That initiative will begin Friday, he said. He added that he is particularly concerned that there may be an uptick in travel during this coming Easter weekend.
Utah Department of Transportation executive director Carlos Braceras said at the briefing the agency has determined nine different locations on freeways where most people enter the state.
“At each of those entry points we have geofenced an area so that cars that are entering the state will receive a text message coming across the Wireless Emergency Alert System,” Braceras said. “They will be asked once they’ve stopped driving to go to a website, there will be a link there, it’s entry.utah.gov, and there will be a self-declaration form they will be asked to fill out.”
The declaration will include questions such as name, email address, where they have traveled in the last two weeks, if they have been tested and if they have any symptoms. They will get a notification when that declaration has been received.
People that are exiting the airport will be given cards with QR codes on them, and they will be asked to fill in a similar declaration. Temperature checks may also be added at a later date.
Braceras added this declaration is not an effort to penalize people, more to inform and gather data.
The numbers below show how the cases break down by the area of the state where they were reported. Below that is the age breakdown.
