At the Friday state briefing state officials had praise for Summit County. They also spoke about a change in classification of the pandemic in the state and the previous purchase of a drug intended to treat malaria that some have touted as a possible coronavirus treatment.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn says as the state has looked closer at case trends they’ve noticed promising data including in the state’s first hotspot of COVID-19, Summit County.
“They responded in part by issuing a shelter in place order, increasing testing, and continuing contact tracing,” Dunn explained. “And they've seen successes due to these efforts. They've had a steady decline in cases since April 2nd. So, this is evidence that social distancing and our public health actions are working to control this pandemic.”
At the briefing Governor Herbert indicated the he has received a recommendation that the state move from a color coded red high risk state to an orange moderate risk marker.
Herbert says that the decision is being directed by data including the number of new hospitalizations which has been declining since April 8. Herbert also noted the slowing of the infection rate to nearly one-to-one, referenced stabilization of capacity at Intensive Care Units, and the increase in available testing all as reasons to potentially make the change.
“I want the people of Utah to know as soon as possible, that I plan to change the risk category for much of the state from red to orange as early as the end of next week, that would be May 1st,” Herbert said.
Before he makes the switch, the governor wants further considerations on how to care for high risk populations. Herbert says he also wants recommendations based on regional differences.
Governor Herbert also addressed the purchase of 20,000 units of Hydroxychloroquine at a cost of $800,000 by the state and their previous negotiations to acquire more, which have since ceased.
“I also understand the state has not yet taken delivery of the initial order,” Herbert continued. “We have in fact learned more in the last six to seven weeks since this originally was brought forward and discussed a lot of people had some hype on it. The president of the United States mentioned it, others have talked about it. Even today—even though the FDA announced just today to not utilize it for this purpose—we still have people who are touting it as a way to lessen the severity of the COVID-19. There's just a lot of uncertainty as far as what's taking place out there. The bottom line is we're not purchasing anymore of this drug, hydroxychloroquine, and the situation in it's entirely is now under review by our legal counsel.”
Herbert says they plan to have more information available on the investigation next week.
