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Another 345 Utahns have tested positive for COVID-19, while three more have died from the disease, the Utah Department of Health said Saturday in its daily report.
The new deaths bring the state’s overall death toll to 363 people.
One positive number emerged Saturday: The state reported the lowest number of people hospitalized for the coronavirus, 167, since June 23. That was 53 days ago. Hospitalizations hit a peak of 225 in the state on July 23. A total of 2,760 Utahns have been hospitalized for the virus since the outbreak began.
The deaths reported Saturday were:
• A Sanpete Countty male older than 85 who was not hospitalized at the time of death.
• A Salt Lake County male between age 65 and 84, who was a long-term care facility resident.
• A Salt Lake County female between age 25 and 44 who was hospitalized at the time of her death.
The state’s rolling seven-day average for new cases — the metric public health officials use to gauge trends — is at 365 cases per day. The average for the seven days before that was 369 per day. Gov. Gary Herbert has challenged Utahns to keep the seven-day average down to 400 cases per day by Sept. 1.
Since the pandemic began, 46,321 Utahns have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the health department reported.
Another 5,084 tests for the virus were processed in the past 24 hours, it said. So a total of 594,901 tests for the disease have been conducted in the state.
The rolling seven-day average for percentage of positive laboratory tests is now 9.2% That is still triple the 3% level that public health officials often say is needed to show the virus’s spread is being contained
The health department also reported that 37,346 Utahns are considered to have recovered from COVID-19. That is, they have survived for at least three weeks after being diagnosed.
