SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 News) – Utah announced a new daily coronavirus case count record Thursday with 954 new cases. However, this comes after cases from as far as six weeks ago have been confirmed and added to Thursday’s numbers.
Of the newly reported cases Thursday, 251 of them are results from antigen testing that has occurred since early June. The Utah Department of Health said it was reviewing the accuracy of the antigen testing and now the results are being added to the daily positive and negative case counts.
According to the health department, like PCR tests, antigen tests tell you if you have COVID-19 right now. A PCR test identifies an infection detecting viral RNA, an antigen test identifies infection by detecting a protein that is part of the COVID-19 virus. Both tests are conducted using a nasal swab. Antigen tests are able to return results faster than PCR tests.
Additionally, 50 cases that were diagnosed in early July and 246 cases that were diagnosed earlier in the week were added to Thursday’s positive case count.
Dr. Dunn takes us through the new coronavirus statistics dashboard:
