While a Park City worker had the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Summit County, many others across the entire county have also been infected. County officials want everyone to know, they are not immune, just because they may live in the more rural areas of the county.
According to Summit County Health Department, there are multiple positive cases of the coronavirus all over the county. Summit County Manager Tom Fisher says there’s a misconception, by some, that this is a Park City virus – but that simply is not the case.
“There's a sense sometimes that in our more rural parts of the county that oh, we don't have to worry about these cases – they're just on the west side of the county - they're related to tourism so we don't have to be as vigilant,” said Fisher. “But I want to be very clear that although we're not pinpointing where these cases are in certain homes, they are all over our county: North Summit South Summit and the Basin and Park City all have cases -- and more than one.”
Summit County Health Director Rich Bullough says residents should be vigilant and every one should assume they have already been exposed to COVID-19. Fisher says this is not the time to let down your guard.
“Given some of the feedback that we've gotten, we've wanted to be very clear that there is not a part of our county that's not being touched by confirmed cases,” Fisher added.
Summit County’s first positive case of COVID-19 was on March 11. The first positive case of community spread was announced 3 days later. Community spread means spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown.
In the two weeks since the first case was reported, the number of cases has continued to rise. At last count, on Tuesday afternoon, the number of confirmed Summit County cases is 83. Wasatch County has 15 and the state total is 285. Bullough does not expect the case number growth to slow anytime in the near future.
Due to insufficient tests available nation-wide, Bullough says it’s safe to assume that we have several times that number of cases in Summit County.
Visit summitcountyhealth.org/coronavirus for Summit County-specific information on COVID-19. At this website, the public can also find Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and community resources that are updated regularly as the pandemic situation evolves.
To learn more about COVID-19, visit coronavirus.utah.gov or call (800) 456-7707.
