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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health is reporting 572 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two deaths from the disease in its daily online update on the virus.
That brings Utah to 57,247 total cases and 433 deaths from the new coronavirus since the pandemic began. In an email, health department spokesman Tom Hudachko said the deaths were of a Salt Lake County man between ages 45 and 64 who was hospitalized, and a Davis County man age 65 to 84 who was the resident of a long-term care facility.
There have now been 190 long-term facility resident deaths in Utah, the health department says.
Saturday's new case number is slightly down from Friday's tally of 656 cases, but is still elevated compared to average daily figures in recent weeks. State health officials said the Tuesday windstorm that ravaged northern Utah and temporarily closed many testing centers may have explained the high number of Friday cases, as a delay had been created.
According to health department figures, 4,422 new Utahns were tested for the virus over Friday's numbers. Currently, 120 Utahns are hospitalized for COVID-19. Of the state's total cases, 48,396 are considered recovered and 8,418 are considered active.
Over the past week, the state is averaging 421 new coronavirus cases per day and its positive test percentage is 9.2%.
State leaders this week unveiled new metrics by which they are judging Utah's response to the virus, including the seven-day average case number as well as the case fatality ratio, outbreak containment, intensive care bed utilization and even economic indicators like consumer confidence.
Utah has met its short-term goals in most respects, but still aims to bring down the seven-day rolling case counts and improve consumer confidence and continuing unemployment claims. Leaders aim to get average daily cases below 400, as they were recently.
Methodology:
Test results now include data from PCR tests and antigen tests. Positive COVID-19 test results are reported to the health department immediately after they are confirmed, but negative test results may not be reported for 24 to 72 hours.
The total number of cases reported by the Utah Department of Health each day includes all cases of COVID-19 since Utah's outbreak began, including those who are currently infected, those who have recovered from the disease, and those who have died.
Recovered cases are defined as anyone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 three or more weeks ago and has not died.
Deaths reported by the state typically occurred two to seven days prior to when they are reported, according to the health department. Some deaths may be from even further back, especially if the person is from Utah but has died in another state.
The health department reports both confirmed and probable COVID-19 case deaths per the case definition outlined by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. The death counts are subject to change as case investigations are completed.
Data included in this story primarily reflects the state of Utah as a whole. For more localized data, visit your local health district's website.
Information is from the Utah Department of Health and coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts. For more information on how the Utah Department of Health compiles and reports COVID-19 data, visit coronavirus.utah.gov/case-counts and scroll down to the "Data Notes" section at the bottom of the page.
