Utah Gov. Gary Herbert walks through the Capitol rotunda to a COVID-19 briefing Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
LOGAN – Hospitalizations continued to rise with the Wednesday report from the Utah Department of Health, which included the news of 877 new positive coronavirus cases.
An average of 144 patients have been hospitalized the last seven days. As of Wednesday, there are 171 Utah patients in the hospital with COVID-19. From the beginning of the outbreak, total hospitalizations are 3,584.
A coronavirus death rate of less than one percent is one of the key metrics in the state’s plan and Wednesday it remained at 0.7 percent.
Wednesday’s new numbers from the Bear River Health Department include 45 new cases in the district, 37 in Cache County, five in Box Elder County and three in Rich County. Among the 35 new positives in Cache County, 34 are in the 18-64 age group.
There have been 3,189 positive cases over the course of the pandemic in the Bear River Health District, 2,635 in Cache County, 537 in Box Elder County and 17 in Rich County. Tuesday Rich County became the 14th county moved to “green.”
Of the positives in the district, 2,594 are considered “recovered”. There are three patients from Cache County hospitalized in the district.
The state’s current seven-day rolling average grew Wednesday to 876 new positives a day.
Another closely watched metric is the rate of daily tests that turn out to be positive and Wednesday that figure increased again, this time to 14.2 percent, another new record in Utah.
Also, the total number of positive cases detected since early-March has grown to 65,921. Among those positive tests in Utah since the outbreak in March, 52,357 are considered recovered.
The have been 444 COVID-19 deaths in Utah which is one more than Tuesday.
As of Wednesday 775,858 tests have been administered in the six months of the pandemic.
The most recent Idaho report shows 38,347 confirmed COVID-19 cases. There have been 451 COVID deaths in the state with 97 positive tests in Franklin County, 37 positives in Bear Lake County and 23 in Oneida County.