LOGAN – With another 5,225 Utahns tested for coronavirus since Wednesday, the total number of tests administered since the outbreak surpassed 700,000 when the Utah Department of Health reported updated numbers Thursday.
The recent weeklong average of new tests per day was 4,301.
There were 346 new positives found Thursday and the total number of positive cases detected since early-March has grown to 56,019.
The rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 381 a day while the seven-day average for percent of positive lab tests is 9.1 percent.
The Bear River Health Department reported 34 positive cases in northern Utah Thursday with 28 in Cache County and six in Box Elder County.
There have been 2,737 positive tests recorded in the Bear River district with 2,260 in Cache County and 466 in Box Elder County plus 11 in Rich County.
Also, among the total 2,737 positive cases in the Bear River District, 2,425 are described as recovered.
There are two COVID patients from the district hospitalized, both from Cache County.
The state’s new COVID-19 gameplan was announced during an hour-long press briefing Thursday. It includes an online scoreboard to keep tabs through the fall and winter.
The two overriding goals are keeping the unemployment rate below 4.5 percent while keeping the state’s case fatality rate below one percent.
“We are concerned as we head into the fall,” Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday. “We have schools now reconvening. We’re going to have more indoor activities and less outdoor activities. We have a concern that maybe that’s more conducive for spreading of the virus when you’re indoors as opposed to outdoors. And so we’re having some important and deep discussions about what do we do now? What’s the next chapter?”
The Governor also announced Thursday the requests of both Box Elder and Carbon counties to shift to the less restrictive green category were granted, effective Friday.
Among other trends, hospitalizations are trending down and 118 Utah patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Thursday. From the beginning of the outbreak, total hospitalizations amount to 3,273. The number of hospitalizations reached a peak of 211 a day in late-July.
Of the 56,019 positive tests in Utah since the outbreak in March, 47,545 are considered recovered.
The have been 430 COVID-19 deaths in Utah which is three more than Wednesday.
As of Thursday 703,766 tests have been administered.
Public schools began to open in mid-August and since then there have been 29 outbreaks resulting in 148 patients
The most recent Idaho update shows 34,310 confirmed COVID-19 cases. There have been 406 COVID deaths in the state with 61 positive tests in Franklin County, 31 positives in Bear Lake County and 22 in Oneida County.