The state has released four more web pages with statistics related to COVID-19 cases in the state.
Utah’s epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn shared that the state’s COVID-19 dashboard has added new data and statistics online regarding COVID-19 cases in the state.
“We now have a map showing the case rates by the 99 Utah small areas,” Dunn said. “What's important to know here is that those case rates take into account the cases from the beginning of the outbreak. So, they're not current hotspots, they’re the overall cases for the entire outbreak. We now have a tab for data on risk factors and exposures and for hospitalizations. We're able to report current COVID related hospitalizations. These are reported to us by hospitals on a daily basis by a self-report survey. The numbers depend on when hospitals report and how they're counting their cases.”
Dr. Dunn noted that on Thursday afternoon there were 95 current hospitalizations in the state. Another important graph now available to the public is the oft talked about curve the state is trying so hard to flatten.
“When we're talking about flattening the curve, this is what public health is looking at,” Dunn continued. “It's a way to visualize growth, plateau, or decrease in cases. So, we're hopeful that these new data points will help explain to you what's going on in the state of the COVID-19 pandemic here in Utah.”
Part of the new data showed that 59% of Covid-19 cases were contracted within the persons household. Dr. Dunn points out that number shows the success of social distancing as the majority of cases are not being contracted at work or public places.
“Everybody who's been diagnosed with COVID-19 they have so few contacts, because people have been socially distanced, that the most likely source of exposure is going to be their household contacts,” Dunn explained. “It doesn't mean your household is more dangerous, it just means that people are having close contact with their household members which is expected. There have been national studies, and we've even had studies here done in Utah, that the transmission rate between household members is around 20% to 25%. So, that's what we can expect moving forward.”
The state has put preventions measures in place to isolate positive cases from other members of their household, but Dr. Dunn did admit households often have a tough time following those measures.
