SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 News) – On Monday, August 24, the Utah Department of Health is reporting 249 additional cases of COVID-19 in the state, and five new deaths.
Utah’s total positive cases of the virus are 49,364 since the beginning of the pandemic. The state’s death toll due to the virus is 390.
The rolling 7-day average for positive tests is 350 per day. The rolling 7-day average for percent of positive laboratory tests is 8.9%
The state health department reported 626,354 Utahns have been tested for the virus. An increase of 1,518 people tested since yesterday.
Breakdown of COVID-19 cases in Utah:
If you have any of the following six symptoms, you should seek testing:
- fever
- cough
- shortness of breath
- sore throat
- muscle aches
- loss of taste or smell
The state’s checking, contact tracing app is designed to help Utahns slow the spread of COVID-19. Read more about the app, “Healthy Together” here.
The CDC announced three more COVID-19 symptoms, but those have not been added as qualifying symptoms in Utah yet.
Hospitalizations
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 2,941 hospitalized cases. There are 130 positive COVID-19 cases currently hospitalized.
41,164 of our cases, are considered “recovered”. A case with a diagnosis date of more than three weeks ago, who has not passed away, is considered recovered
Utah’s four largest healthcare systems are coming together to encourage Utahns to wear masks with a campaign called #MaskUpUtah.
For a closer look at hospitalization and mortality, records click the link.
Long-term care facilities
Utah now is tracking COVID-19 outbreaks at its long-term care facilities. More than 200 facilities across the state are impacted by the virus. The outbreaks in the facilities are across Utah, including recent outbreaks at long-term care facilities in St. George.
COVID-19 in the workplace
Utah’s coronavirus dashboard now includes information on various outbreaks in the state. An outbreak is defined by two or more cases associated with a setting outside of the household within 14 days.
“It’s more important than ever that employers provide safe working environments for their employees, and have policies in place that not only allow, but encourage, employees to stay away from the workplace when they are sick,” Dr. Dunn said after an outbreak was reported at a meat facility in Cache County.
Since then, three meat packing plants on the Wasatch Front closed due to similar outbreaks.
Outbreaks in the “Group Living” category are those in facilities that provide living and services that are not nursing homes or long-term care facilities, including homeless shelters and addiction treatment centers. Outbreaks in the “Detention Facility” category include those in prisons, jails, and juvenile detention facilities. Outbreaks in the “Other Setting” category include those in apartment buildings, cruise ships, groups that traveled together etc.
“For the rest of us, now is not the time to let your guard down. Social distancing is more important than ever, yet people seem to be taking it less seriously than ever. If you’re sick, stay home. If you’re moving about in public, wear a mask. It is up to all of us as individuals to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Utah.”
Take a closer look on the dashboard under “outbreaks.”
RELATED: Here’s Utah’s latest plan to deal with the pandemic, Utah Leads Together 4.0
Salt Lake City, is the only city still in the “orange/moderate” risk phase, the majority of Utah is in the”yellow/ low-risk” phase of reopening while the governor moved several rural counties to green. The governor paused a further release of any restrictions after recent surge in cases.
Click the link for more on what the yellow phase of reopening looks like. Find out what you need to know about the green phase.
Flatten the curve
Utah public health officials say the “epidemic curve status” looks at how the trend in cases is changing over time and assigns a trend category to each day, based on whether the three-day daily average of cases is increasing, staying stable, or decreasing.
Find more info at https://coronavirus.utah.gov/.
*The actual number of people tested for COVID-19 in Utah is considerably higher than the numbers in this report because some large private laboratories are not yet reporting negative results to public health.
How to use the new Case Count Dashboard
