Utah sees 111 new cases of COVID-19, 1 new death

Utah sees 111 new cases of COVID-19, 1 new death

(Ivy Ceballo, KSL)


3 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's COVID-19 statistics show that the state has seen a plateau in cases of the disease over the past few weeks, but there is still a long way to go, health officials say.

"We’ve definitely maintained a plateau for a couple weeks and that is a good sign,” Utah Department of Health state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said Monday.

Though the situation looks promising and cases are holding steady, Utah has yet to see a definitive decrease in cases, Dunn said. State authorities are looking to see a decrease before significantly relaxing social distancing measures further.

At the beginning of this month, Utah transitioned to the orange, moderate-risk level for COVID-19 from the red, high-risk level outlined through the Utah Leads Together 2.0 plan for the state's pandemic recovery.

As of Monday, Dunn said she was not aware of any plans for Utah to transition to the yellow, low-risk level, by the end of this week.

New COVID-19 cases

Monday, Utah’s total number of COVID-19 cases increased by 111 from Sunday, with one new reported death, according to the health department.

The person who died was an older Salt Lake County man who was under the age of 60, according to Dunn. The man was hospitalized at the time of his death, she said.


Utah Department of Health state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn discussed the current coronavirus situation in the state at a press conference Monday afternoon. Watch the replay of the event below. The next COVID-19 press conference is expected Wednesday.


Monday's totals give Utah 6,362 total confirmed cases, with 517 total hospitalizations and 68 total deaths from the disease. Previously, there were 6,251 total cases in the state.

As of Sunday, there were 92 people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 in Utah, according to the health department.

The new numbers indicate a 1.8% increase in positive cases since Sunday. Over 150,000 people have been tested for COVID-19 in Utah so far, and 4.2% have tested positive for the disease.

The total number of cases reported by the health department includes all cases of COVID-19 since Utah’s outbreak began, including those who are infected now, those who have recovered from the disease, and those who have died.

On Sunday, there were 3,181 people estimated to have recovered from COVID-19 in Utah. Anyone who was diagnosed with the disease three or more weeks ago and has not died is considered recovered, according to the health department.

The most recent health department data available for some COVID-19 metrics, such as hospitalizations and recoveries, are from the previous day.

Utah's COVID-19 transmission rate

Throughout Utah's pandemic, health officials have referred to the "transmission rate" of COVID-19 as one metric that they consider when assessing the severity of the situation in the state.

The transmission rate refers to how likely it is for a person infected with the disease to pass it along to another person. For example, a transmission rate of 1.0 means that a person who has contracted COVID-19 is likely to pass the disease along to one other person.

Utah's current transmission rate is estimated to be somewhere in the range of 1.1 to 1.3, according to Dunn. That has decreased since the beginning of the pandemic, largely due to social distancing, she said.

Dr. Angela Dunn, state epidemiologist with the Utah Department of Health, lays her hands on her notebook while speaking during the daily COVID-19 media briefing at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Monday, May 11, 2020. (Photo: Ivy Ceballo, KSL)
Dr. Angela Dunn, state epidemiologist with the Utah Department of Health, lays her hands on her notebook while speaking during the daily COVID-19 media briefing at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Monday, May 11, 2020. (Photo: Ivy Ceballo, KSL)

Health officials are hopeful that Utah's transmission rate will stay around 1.0 for the next several months, and they hope to see it drop below 1.0 by the fall, Dunn added.

“That’s how you know (the pandemic is) getting under control," she said. "That means that your case rate is decreasing, and you're seeing a decrease in cases every day. And that's really an important place for us to get to."

However, the transmission rate likely won't stabilize below 1.0 until lots of people have immunity to COVID-19, either through being infected with the disease previously or through a vaccine, Dunn said.

Health officials have said a vaccine for COVID-19 could still be a year or more away from becoming available.

The health department's strike teams are making the COVID-19 response more efficient, though, Dunn said. Strike teams are deployed to COVID-19 hot spots and include testing and treatment resources, as well as investigators who determine where the outbreak started.

Currently, one strike team has deployed to Utah County to respond to an outbreak associated with a long-term care facility there, Dunn said. The state is also providing mobile testing resources to the Navajo Nation. There has not been a need to deploy any additional strike teams elsewhere, Dunn said.

Comparing flu and COVID-19 not 'apples to apples'

The common flu and COVID-19 can't be compared directly to one another, Dunn said.

Treatments for the flu, as well as a vaccine, are readily available to the public. Additionally, the U.S. health care system has been dealing with flu season outbreaks every year for decades, Dunn said.

Even in a best-case scenario with treatments, a vaccine and predictability, the flu still creates a strain on the health care system every year, Dunn said.

For COVID-19, there are no proven treatments and no vaccine. It also stems from a novel coronavirus, which no health care workers have dealt with for and can't predict, she added.


With COVID, we don't have a vaccine, we don't have treatment and we can't predict it, so it's something that we have to take these social distancing measures in order to really prevent the spread of COVID-19.

–Dr. Angela Dunn, Utah Department of Health


Social distancing is the only available weapon that's been proven to work against the spread of the virus, Dunn said.

"With COVID, we don't have a vaccine, we don't have treatment and we can't predict it, so it's something that we have to take these social distancing measures in order to really prevent the spread of COVID-19," she said.

Dunn said health officials are "acutely aware" of the implications social distancing measures have for the Utah economy. State officials know that there may be economic impacts felt for generations after this pandemic.

"We can’t separate the public health crisis from the economic crisis, they go hand in hand,” she said.

However, the public health crisis should be addressed first, Dunn added. If people are too afraid to go out to a restaurant or a business, the economy can't be reopened. So, public health officials need to make sure the virus is contained enough so that people can feel safe to go out and not get infected, she said.

Health officials are trying to end the pandemic as quickly as possible so that the economy can in turn open up just as quickly, Dunn said. The public health and economic crises aren't competing priorities — it's something state leaders are working to address at the same time, she said.

Utah's proactive response to quickly institute social distancing measures helped slow the spread of the disease, and keep Utah's case counts and death rates low, Dunn said. That's put the state in a good place and it's now allowing the economy to slowly reopen, but it must be balanced, she added.

"We're doing the right thing here in Utah and I'm confident that we'll be able to manage both the health and the economic side moving forward," Dunn said.

Photos

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

UtahCoronavirus

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast