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Another 338 Utahns have tested positive for COVID-19, while two more people in the state — both Salt Lake County men — have died from the disease, the Utah Department of Health said Wednesday in its daily report.
The two new deaths bring the state’s overall death toll to 351 people.
The two people whose deaths were reported Wednesday are both Salt Lake County men, ages 45 to 64. One was in the hospital when he died; the other was in a long-term care facility.
The state’s rolling seven-day average for new cases — the metric public-health officials use to gauge trends — is at 389 cases per day. The average for the seven days before that was 448 per day.
Gov. Gary Herbert has challenged Utahns to bring the seven-day average down to 400 cases per day by Sept. 1.
Since the pandemic began, 45,090 Utahns have been diagnosed with COVID-19, UDOH reported.
Another 2,660 tests for the virus were processed in the last 24 hours, UDOH reported. The rolling seven-day rate of positive test results is at 8.6%
That rate is below the 10.1% seven-day average reported a week ago, but still above the 2% or 3% level that public health officials often say is needed to show the virus’ spread is being contained.
Tuesday’s test figure is well below the rolling seven-day average of tests performed, which is 4,412 tests per day. That average is a 3.8% drop from the week before, when an average of 4,590 tests a day were performed.
UDOH reported 200 people were hospitalized from COVID-19 as of Wednesday, with 19 new admissions overnight. Since the pandemic began, 2,696 people have been hospitalized because of the virus.
