Utah continued its upward trend in COVID-19 cases on Thursday, with the Department of Health reporting over 1,800 new cases. KPCW has more on that including the latest numbers from Summit and Wasatch County.
The Utah Department of Health reported 1,837 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, increasing the state’s seven-day rolling average of positive cases to 1,578 per day.
The state’s rolling 7-day average for positive laboratory tests is 18.1%.
There are 317 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 and statewide ICU beds are currently 69.2% occupied, a slight decrease from Wednesday.
Most concerning to state health officials is ICU bed capacity. Governor Gary Herbert warned earlier this week that if ICU beds do become full, rationed care would be necessary for both COCID-19 and non COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Mark Shah is an emergency room physician with the Utah Hospital Association and urged Utahns at Thursday’s coronavirus briefing to stop arguing about the effectiveness of masks or the severity of the disease.
“We have made a choice,” said Shah. “Everyone in this room has made a choice to unify around a common goal, and that is to empower and enable Utahns to help Utahns get through this pandemic. You each have a choice to make as well to unify around this mission. We can continue to argue and disagree about lots of things, politics and sports, upcoming election. We cannot continue to argue about masking. We cannot continue to argue about whether this pandemic is real or made up. And we cannot continue to argue that healthcare will do just fine regardless of the demand. That is not true.”
Summit County reported 28 new cases on Thursday, while Wasatch County reported 14. Thursday’s numbers were the third highest for Summit County since the start of the pandemic. The county reported 30 cases on March 22nd and 29 cases on October 22nd. Wasatch County’s record of 25 cases in a day came on October 25th.
Neither county reported any new deaths. As of Thursday, only one person has died of COVID-19 in Summit County while Wasatch County says 9 people have died from the disease.
The Department of Health also reported 10 statewide COVID-19 deaths, including one male between 25 and 44 years old who was hospitalized at the time of his death. All others were over 45 years old.
The department has clarified that daily death reports are not from the last 24 hours, however, because the reporting of deaths can sometimes take months as individual causes of death are investigated.
