SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 2, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah’s daily COVID-19 case number is up 62 new documented cases in 24 hours, for a new total of 1,074 confirmed patients.
While that’s a relatively small jump — about 6% — from the day before, but Dr. Angela Dunn, State of Utah Department of Health Epidemiologist, said the number of test results reported was also down, and so lower number maybe due to that variable.
The number of people tested was reported as 20,155. No new deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, with that total holding steady at seven.
But at an early afternoon news conference, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said the big news Thursday is an new alliance between the public and private sector in Utah, and an effort called “Utah Crush the Curve,” referring to the rate of increase in the COVID-19 virus, depicted on a graph as an upward curve.
Those participating in the alliance are state and county government officials and health departments, health care institutions, and high tech businesses in what is known as Utah’s Silicon Slopes Serves organization.
The businesses will use their resources to help build a redundant supply chain so Utah doctors can get the testing supplies and protective garments and facemasks needed.
They are also ramping up to get more Utah’s tested for COVID-19, and to gather more information that will allow local and national researchers to have more detailed information on the virus and its spread.
The private-public partnership will also set up new testing facilities that, at scale, will more than double the state’s daily testing capacity from 3,000 to 6,000 tests a day, according to information released at the news conference. Two testing centers, both in Utah County, are opened, and eight to 10 more are planned.
A new website, TestUtah.com, has been set up to help Utahn’s assess whether their symptoms suggest they should be tested for COVID-19. All Utahns are encouraged to take the online test as part of the data-collecting process. Data from the site will assist officials to track the spread of the virus through the state, officials said.
The assessment will be conducted using GDPR, HIPAA, HITRUST and FedRamp compliant technology, maintaining the highest levels of security and privacy protection available, a released statement says.
“We are excited to announce a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership that will help accelerate testing for COVID-19 and help us flatten the curve in Utah and save lives,” Herbert said in a prepared statement.
“It has been amazing to work with Silicon Slopes and so many incredible leaders in both the technology and healthcare communities of Utah to develop a solution to keep our citizens safe, informed and help us all get us back to a normal way of life as quickly and safely as possible.”
The effort comes on the heels of Silicon Slopes’ broader initiative to mobilize the tech community in a public-private initiative to combat the COVID-19 epidemic via SlopesServes.com, where members of the community can find business resources, donate to the COVID-19 Community Response Fund, volunteer, and donate medical supplies.
“Utah is an amazing place. Leaders across many industries have come together virtually overnight to create a solution that will help crush the curve and save many lives,” said Clint Betts, executive director of Silicon Slopes, in a prepared statement. “We’re grateful for the seamless way the public and private sectors in Utah rally together with the sole goal of helping people. There is no place or partnership like this anywhere in the world.”
For more information and to take the assessment and schedule a test, visit TestUtah.com.
To see today’s cases numbers broken down by county or areas, read the coronavirus.utah.gov chart, below. One note: Numbers in the “cases” column now include both Utah residents and visitors, numbers previously listed in separate columns.
