Plateau in Utah’s COVID-19 cases good news compared to other states, officials say

Gov. Spencer Cox speaks at a COVID-19 briefing at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 22, 2021. Utah’s COVID-19 cases have hit a “clear plateau,” Cox said Thursday, calling on residents to continue to take commonsense precautions and get vaccinated against the virus. | Trent Nelson

Two Utah counties move into more restrictive designations

Utah’s COVID-19 cases have hit a “clear plateau,” Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday, calling on residents to continue to take commonsense precautions and get vaccinated against the virus.

During the governor’s weekly briefing on the state’s efforts against the coronavirus, held virtually from the Capitol in Salt Lake City, state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said the plateau in cases is “really good news” because unlike a number of other states, Utah has not seen a surge in new cases.

Dunn, who is leaving the state to head the Salt Lake County Health Department, credited wearing masks, social distancing and other public health measures as well as the “rapid uptake” of COVID-19 vaccines. She said more than half of Utahns have had a single dose, and more than a quarter are fully vaccinated.

Trent Nelson

State epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn attends a COVID-19 briefing at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 22, 2021.

“We haven’t seen any dramatic or really obvious impact of ending the mask mandate on April 10 to our cases and the spread of COVID,” Dunn said, adding that she has noticed people are still tending to mask up in public despite the new law that lifted the statewide requirement.

Cox announced Grand County now has a high level of virus transmission and is the only one of Utah’s 29 counties in that category. At the same time, Washington County shifted from the low to moderate category, while Carbon and Sevier counties headed the other direction, from a moderate to a low transmission level.

”This is just a reminder again that the pandemic is not over although we’re getting closer,” the governor said.

Dunn said “no specific source” has been identified for the increased transmission levels in some counties. Utah’s transmission levels are determined by the percent positivity of tests, case counts and hospital intensive care unit utilization and used to spell out what activities can take place,

The Utah Department of Health reported 472 new COVID-19 cases in the state Thursday, and one additional death from the virus, a Summit County woman between 45 and 64 who was hospitalized at the time of her death. Utah has had 394,334 coronavirus cases in the state since the start of the pandemic more than a year ago.

There have been a total of 1,985,296 coronavirus vaccine doses administered in Utah, a daily increase of 34,402. Cox said he expects a “lucky” Utahn will receive the 2 millionth dose given in the state sometime Thursday.

The rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 386 per day, and 6,650 more Utahns took tests since Wednesday when a total of 16,394 tests were recorded. Dunn lauded the drop in the rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of tests, now 2.96% when all results are included, and 6% when multiple tests by individuals are excluded.

Currently, 137 people are hospitalized with the virus in Utah and the state’s death toll has reached 2,178.

This story will be updated.

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