LOGAN – Numbers of positive COVID-19 cases in the Bear River Health District (BRHD) have grown larger for four straight days and, including 38 in the Saturday report, topped out at 100 when figures since Wednesday were totaled.

A post on the Angie’s Restaurant Facebook page explained why the restaurant is currently closed

A Logan restaurant was affected by the growing numbers when an employee at Angie’s was tested positive for the virus and the restaurant’s management posted on its Facebook page that it would close operations until all employees were tested.

“The employee was there for 30 minutes between 2:30 PM to 3 PM on Wednesday,” restaurant management posted on their Facebook page Saturday. “The restaurant was closed for sanitation. She did not wait on any customer at all. And she had Thursday and Friday off.”

According to multiple sources, hundreds of employees at JBS in Hyrum were also getting tested Friday and Saturday.

A Bear River Health Department spokesman said its immediate concern is to conduct a contact tracing interview with the infected employees. BRHD said the decision to close was made by the restaurant ownership, likely in an abundance of caution.

Saturday’s 38 positive cases, added to 31 on Friday, 22 Thursday and 10 Wednesday leaves the recent four-day average at exactly 25. Since the pandemic started and the beginning of local COVID-19 testing began on March 17, there had never been more than eight new positive tests in one day, until the 10 new Wednesday.

The Utah Health Department has been involved in local testing in an effort to find positive cases, particularly in what are termed “essential” businesses to help keep them up and running.

Recently, the Bear River Health Department announced a push to increase antibody testing as a way to better understand the trends in cases. Spokesman Joshua Greer said positives found in those tests were not counted as newly discovered cases.

With the 38 new cases reported in the district Saturday — 37 in Cache County and one in Box Elder County — the district caseload has grown to 206, 179 in Cache County and 27 in Box Elder with none in Rich County. There are currently no patients hospitalized in the Bear River Health District.

The Utah Department of Health Saturday report indicates 369 new cases from yesterday and a total 9,533 Utah cases in the pandemic. The state’s COVID-19 deaths grew to 112. That is five more than yesterday.

Total tests in Utah now total 210,105 with yesterday’s 4,250 and the rate of positives is at 4.5 percent of total tested. There were 10 more hospitalizations yesterday, 99 positive cases are now hospitalized, and the total hospitalizations the last two and a half months in Utah is 763.

The latest Idaho report shows 2,803 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 82 deaths. The first confirmed positive case in Franklin County was recorded Thursday, a female in her 40s and contact was travel related. There are still no cases that have been found in Bear Lake and Oneida counties.



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