56 additional coronavirus cases reported in Utah, totaling 402

University of Utah Health employees direct people to the COVID-19 testing tents at the Sugar House Health Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 25, 2020. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah reported 56 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Thursday, raising the state’s total to 402.

Salt Lake County jumped from 151 cases to 178 — accounting for about half of the new cases with 27 confirmed. Summit County, which issued a stay-at-home order that begins Friday, increased from 97 to 103.

Utah County reported an increase to 25 cases, up from 19, while Davis County increased to 39 cases from 35 on Wednesday.

Just 24 hours after Summit County issued its stay-at-home order, some groups and leaders are pressing state officials to do the same. So far, the governor has not issued such an order, but governors in Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho and Colorado have. Idaho currently has far fewer confirmed coronavirus cases than Utah has.

Idaho’s numbers jumped 150% in nine days, prompting Gov. Brad Little to issue a statewide 21-day stay-at-home order. Idaho has tested far fewer people, just over 2,000 as of midday Thursday, which indicates the state’s numbers could be much higher.

Dr. Angela Dunn, the state’s epidemiologist, said Thursday’s increase in Utah cases marked the third consecutive day of a 16% increase in confirmed cases statewide, which comes despite increased testing.

“It’s certainly a great sign,” Dunn said. “But we still need to wait those 14 days to determine how the trend is really looking, because we’re just now finding out cases that could have been infected about two weeks ago. So time will tell, but it is a good sign that we are seeing a decrease and not an exponential increase.”

She said state officials need more time — and hopefully a lot more tests — to have a ‘truly reflective’ picture of what Utah faces.

“We expect those numbers to drastically increase,” she said.

Only about 10% required treatment at the highest levels — the intensive care unit.

Utah has a lower hospitalization rate than the rest of the country, and there may be several reasons for that, she said.

“I think we definitely have a younger population in Utah than the rest of the country,” Dunn said. “And we know that older adults are more vulnerable to severe COVID-19. So I think that is definitely playing a part in our lower hospitalization rate. We are also doing excellent social distancing in Utah. We are putting the responsibility on individuals to stay home when they’re sick and to keep their distance from others.

“And the fact that we have a low hospitalization rate is a good sign that people are adhering to those recommendations.”

There has been pressure from local leaders hoping the governor will issue a statewide stay-at-home order, but Dunn said there aren’t plans to issue those orders at either a local or state level right now.

“We are consistently working with our local health officers as well as local and state elected officials to determine the best course forward for Utah, given our case count,” Dunn said. “So those discussions take place daily and at this point, we don’t have any plan for recommendation. ... Right now they do not have plans in place.”

Just before Thursday’s press conference, President Donald Trump issued a letter to all U.S. governors thanking them for their efforts and telling them they’re working on new guidelines now that testing capabilities across the country are increasing.

“This is what we envision: Our expanded testing capabilities will quickly enable us to publish criteria, developed in close coordination with the Nation’s public health officials and scientists, to help classify counties with respect to continued risks posed by the virus,” he wrote. “This will incorporate robust surveillance testing, which allows us to monitor the spread of the virus throughout the country. Under these data-driven criteria, we will suggest guidelines categorizing counties as high-risk, medium-risk, or low-risk.”

It continued, “With each passing day, our increasingly extensive testing capabilities are giving us a better understanding of the virus and its path. ... The virus has inflicted a heavy toll on our country. A number of our fellow citizens have tragically succumbed to its ravages, while many more are fighting for their lives. ... In their honor, we pledge to marshal every resource and power we have to overcome and vanquish this threat.”

Salt Lake police are asking residents to help them follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Utah Health Department guidelines by filing nonemergency reports online. Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown offered guidance on how to report something to police using their website at slcpd.com in a YouTube video.

This advice came Thursday as the department reportedly has 12 employees on self-quarantine due to exposure with potential or confirmed cases of COVID-19. The department said these self-quarantine measures have not impacted its ability to respond to calls, but it has highlighted the need for even police officers to practice “social distancing” to keep officers and the public safe.

On Wednesday the U.S. Senate approved a $2 trillion economic relief package, but it has to be approved by the House and then signed by Trump before any of the relief money becomes available. That was passed the night before new unemployment numbers were released Thursday morning.

About 3.3 million unemployment claims were made across the country.

There are 13 states with more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19, including Colorado, which confirmed 1,086 cases Wednesday and Colorado, which confirmed 3,158 cases on Thursday morning.

There have been at least 75,665 U.S. cases confirmed as of Thursday morning, and in that same time frame, there have been at least 1,100 deaths.

Wednesday, the CDC reported 13,355 new cases in the United States with 247 new deaths. There were more than 500,000 confirmed cases worldwide as of Thursday afternoon, according to John Hopkins University.

So much of the world is impacted that CNN reports nearly a third of the world’s population is functioning with coronavirus-related restrictions and guidelines.

Additional information will be posted throughout the day.

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