SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 News) – First Utah surged, exploding with new COVID-19 cases per capita, now Utah is still seeing record numbers of cases but the curve is flattening slightly for the moment. Now the states surrounding Utah: Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming and Arizona have all reported dangerous surges in COVID-19 infections. Now, in the United States is reporting 2,653,392 cases, with over 128,000 deaths reported from the virus. The number of people deceased is the highest in the world.
According to Data from the rt.live project, Nevada is now the per capita hot spot in the country. Even though Florida, actually has more population and is reporting the most cases in the country. Reports in Idaho, Arizona and Wyoming are showing second wave surges. Colorado is still surging, but not as high as the other states and is the only State below Utah in the group.
Idaho has reported a surge of more than 100 cases per day over the last 7 days. Wyoming has reported increasing cases in the last week, including more cases reported this past weekend than at any time during the pandemic.
Nevada set case count records over the weekend, and that sent them to the number 1 position per capita in new cases. With the Rt.live website naming Nevada the highest in the country with a 1.64 transmission rate.
Arizona has had an exponential increase in cases with one third of the state’s 73,000 cases being confirmed in the last week.
What does this mean for Utahns?
Utah is a crossroads state for all of these places, I-80, I-84, I-70 and I-15 provide the primary travel lanes through our state. This could potentially create more risk. We asked the Utah Department of health about the potential. Communications Director Tom Hudachko explained:
“We’re concerned about all potential transmission routes at this point. That said, travel does not seem to be a primary transmission route for cases in Utah right now. Of all the Utah cases that have known exposures, only about 2% of them are associated with travel. We would recommend people traveling out-of-state follow the public health guidelines that are in place in the area where they are traveling; in addition to wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, and regularly washing their hands. If they are sick, they should refrain from traveling.”
Remember interpreting numbers come from many sources. For the sake of this article, we are using information from RT.live, plus sources from the individuals state, including their official case counts, and media reports from each geographical area. There are not as many people living in the intermountain west, as there is in the East and Florida. Florida has the most actual infections in the country.
Wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, wear a mask, to help protect other people, in case you are an asymptomatic carrier, and maintain social distancing whenever possible.
