First COVID-19 death from BRHD; JBS employees receiving personal protection equipment and raises

BRIGHAM CITY – A Box Elder County resident who was diagnosed, hospitalized, and passed away in another state has become the first reported COVID-19 death from the Bear River Health District.

The death occurred Saturday and was a previously-reported positive case that was identified through testing conducted in another state.

The individual was male, over age 60 and had underlying medical conditions that put him at a higher risk for severe disease and complications.

“We want the family to know our heartfelt condolences,” said Lloyd Berentzen, Executive Director of the Bear River Health Department. “The pain this family must be feeling right now puts into perspective the sacrifices we all must make to keep one another safe and healthy.”

Also, two new positive COVID-19 cases were found in Cache County Saturday, both involving individuals under 18.

There are now 56 confirmed cases in the Bear River Health District.

The total of positive cases in Cache County is 40 and there have now been 16 in Box Elder County with no cases reported in Rich County.

The state death count for COVID-19, including Sunday’s totals, is 27, two more than Saturday.

Sunday, the Utah Department of Health reported 3,069 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 138 more than Saturday. Those tested now totals 63,555. There have been 259 hospitalizations.

Starting Monday, workers at the JBS meatpacking plant in Hyrum, 1,200 of them, are getting a $4-per-hour pay hike plus increased safety measures at work. JBS workers will have access to personal protection equipment like masks, gloves and face shields and the company will install plexiglass shields where social distancing is impossible.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) announced the agreement with JBS Sunday.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

1 Comment

  • Michael April 20, 2020 at 10:26 am Reply

    Was he actively living Box Elder county?

Leave a Reply to Michael Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.