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A near record 1,498 new COVID-19 cases are included in the Utah Department Health’s Thursday report on a day when the state’s new restrictions go into effect requiring people in most counties to wear masks in social gatherings and limiting such private gatherings to 10 people.
Those restrictions take effect at midnight Thursday with state health officials noting there is a difference between such private gatherings and events like church meetings and sports competitions.
The state reported two more deaths since Wednesday, bringing the total during the pandemic to 529 Utahns who have lost their lives to the coronavirus.
Also, UDOH said on average 1,204 new positive tests have been reported each day for the last week which matches Wednesday, the highest average during the seven months of the pandemic.
Numbers in the Bear River Health Department’s Thursday report came down a bit from the 107 new cases Wednesday. The new total is 70 cases: 50 in Cache County and 20 in Box Elder County.
There have been 4,279 positive cases over the course of the pandemic in the Bear River District, 3,509 in Cache County, 750 in Box Elder County and 20 in Rich County.
Among the new positives in the district, 3,227 are considered “recovered”. There are now 10 from the district in hospitals, seven from Cache County and three from Box Elder County.
There 258 hospitalizations Thursday is one short of the one-day record high during the pandemic, which was Wednesday. Total hospitalizations since the beginning of the outbreak is now 4,511.
The total number of positive cases detected since early-March in Utah has grown to 90,461 and among all those positive tests since the outbreak, 66,683 are considered recovered.
A total of 948,002 tests have been administered in Utah during the pandemic.
In the most recent report from Idaho there are 49,892 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state. There have been 516 COVID deaths in Idaho with 207 positive tests in Franklin County, 53 positives in Bear Lake County and 29 in Oneida County.