SALT LAKE CITY — For the second day in a row, Utah health officials reported another record with nearly 3,000 new COVID-19 cases, plus 17 new deaths, the most confirmed in a single day during the pandemic.
Friday’s 2,987 new cases were reported out of 11,220 people tested, with a 26.6% positive rate, according to the Utah Department of Health. The rolling seven-day average for new cases is now 2,033 per day, and the average positive test rate is 19.7%.
The previous record for daily new cases was set Thursday when 2,807 cases were reported in the Beehive State, which was 515 more than the previous record set on Oct. 30.
“The numbers being reported today are exactly what we’ve been warning Utah residents about for weeks. They are why we’ve implored Utahns to adopt the behaviors that could have prevented us from reaching this point,” Gov. Gary Herbert said in a prepared statement Friday.
“COVID-19 is spreading rampantly and uncontrolled in our communities. Getting ahead of this trend will become more and more difficult with every passing day. In the coming days I will be announcing additional policies designed to address this ongoing surge,” he said.
Utah is seeing the eighth-highest rate of new cases in the U.S. within the last seven days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is one of 12 Western and Midwestern states with rates of disease between 40.4-61.7 cases per 100,000 people. Those states also include Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Alaska.
But Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin have confirmed even higher rates of the disease than Utah within the last week, according to the CDC.
On Friday, 395 people were hospitalized with the disease in Utah, six more than were hospitalized on Thursday. It marks the highest number of current coronavirus hospitalizations in the state.
Exposure tool
The state’s Unified Command team announced Friday it intends to “explore” using Apple/Google’s Exposure Notification Express (EN Express) tool to notify residents through their cellphones of potential exposures to COVID-19.
“Due to this, and uncertainty with future budgets, the state has canceled its previously issued request for proposal from vendors to integrate Bluetooth technology with the Healthy Together mobile app. Vendors who submitted proposals were notified earlier today of the state’s plans,” the Utah Department of Health said in a statement.
The Apple/Google tool notifies people of potential exposure to the disease through software on both Apple and Android devices. Officials say it provides privacy protection for users.
“Anyone notified of an exposure will not receive any information about the person who potentially exposed them. Additionally, no location or exposure information is shared with the state or other third parties,” officials said in the statement.
According to Google, Android users can find it on Google Play if their state has opted into the tool. Meanwhile, iPhone users can turn on exposure notifications through their settings. After a user has opted in, the system generates a random ID for their device which automatically gets changed every 10 to 20 minutes, Google officials say.
“Your phone and the phones around you will work in the background to exchange these privacy-preserving random IDs via Bluetooth. You do not need to have the app open for this process to take place,” according to Google.
The user’s cellphone then “periodically checks all the random IDs associated with positive COVID-19 cases against its own list.” If a user has had a potential exposure to the disease, they will get a notification on their device along with instructions from their local health authority.
Google says only public health officials can use the system and can request users’ phone numbers to contact them with additional guidance.
Utah health officials did not say when the tool might become available to Utahns.
Record day for deaths
The deaths reported Friday bring the state’s death toll to 649. They were: four Utah County men between the ages of 65 and 84 and one older than 85 — three were hospitalized, one was a long-term care resident, and one was not hospitalized when he died.
In Davis County, a man and woman, both between 65 and 84, were both hospitalized when they died.
Five deaths occurred in Salt Lake County: two women between 65 and 84, one of whom was hospitalized and one who was a long-term care resident; a woman between 45 and 64, who was hospitalized when she died; a man between 65-84, who was a long-term care resident; and a man between 25 and 44, who was hospitalized.
Two Washington County residents also died — a man and woman both between 65-84 who were hospitalized when they died. The latest deaths also included a Weber County man older than 85, who was not hospitalized; a Juab County man older 85, who was a long-term care resident; and a Tooele County man between 45 and 64, who was hospitalized when he died.
Now 127,279 cases have been confirmed in Utah out of 1,136,826 people tested since the pandemic began, with an overall positive rate of 11.2%. The death rate of confirmed cases stands at 0.51%. Hospitalizations since the outbreak started now total 5,922 in Utah.
New COVID-19 cases reported Friday by health district:
- Salt Lake County, 1,183.
- Utah County, 679.
- Davis County, 278.
- Weber-Morgan, 254.
- Southwest Utah, 200.
- Bear River, 136.
- Central Utah, 64.
- Tooele County, 50.
- Summit County, 46.
- Wasatch County, 33.
- TriCounty (Uinta Basin), 31.
- Southeast Utah, 27.
- San Juan County, 6.