Utah sees 305 new cases of COVID-19, 1 new death

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SALT LAKE CITY — After three days of decreasing numbers of new COVID-19 cases, Utah saw a higher number of new cases Wednesday.

Utah’s number of COVID-19 cases has increased by 305 from Tuesday, with one new reported death, according to the Utah Department of Health.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday saw 268, 256 and 237 new cases, respectively.

Though there were more new cases Wednesday than the day before, the increase is indicative of an epidemic plateau in Utah, according to the health department.

Health officials analyze the amount of new cases each day and categorize the day as "incidence growth," "incidence plateau" or "incidence decline." The last four days have been categorized as plateaus.

The 12 days before that were all categorized as "incidence growth," which may have been explained by a statewide spike of COVID-19 cases the health department has been investigating. Though data from the last several days suggest new cases may be leveling off again, the health department has not indicated that the spike has ended.

Wednesday’s totals give Utah 12,864 total confirmed cases, with 954 total hospitalizations and 128 total deaths from the disease. Previously, there were 12,559 total cases in the state.

The new numbers indicate a 2.4% increase in positive cases since Tuesday. Of the 249,760 tests conducted in Utah so far, 5.2% were positive for COVID-19. There were 2,900 tests conducted between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The person who died was a woman from Davis County who was between the ages of 60 and 85. She was hospitalized at the time of her death, health officials reported.

The health department estimates there are now 5,149 active cases of COVID-19 in Utah. There are 7,587 recovered cases in Utah. Anyone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 three or more weeks ago and has not died is considered recovered.

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.

There is no COVID-19 news conference scheduled for Wednesday. Gov. Gary Herbert and state health department epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn are expected to discuss the current coronavirus situation in Utah at a press conference Thursday at 11 a.m.