“This is unsustainable”

On Friday, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Utah grew to record highs. The daily average of new positive tests continues to break previous records and Gov. Gary Herbert issued a strongly worded statement that the recent spike in cases is “unsustainable.”

“As Utahns, it is our duty to work together to turn things around. We must exercise all necessary precautions and follow all public health guidance,” said the Governor.

He said it is probable that four more counties will soon be designated as “high transmission” areas. Six counties, including Cache County, are already in that group.

High transmission areas have more strict public health requirements than moderate and low areas.

With 9,037 Utahns tested the last 24 hours 1,496 new positive cases were found. The rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 1,224 a day, a new record since the start of the pandemic.

Each day this week when new hospitalization numbers were issued it broke the previous all time record for the pandemic. But Friday, with 290 Utahns now hospitalized, the record was shattered.

Total hospitalizations since the beginning of the outbreak are now 4,559.

The state reported eight more deaths since Thursday, including a Box Elder County man older than 85. He is the sixth Box Elder County resident to die from COVID-19 (eight Cache County residents have died from the virus). It brings the total during the pandemic to 537 Utahns who have lost their lives to the coronavirus.

Numbers in the Bear River Health Department’s Friday report indicate 57 cases: 51 in Cache County and six in Box Elder County.

There have been 4,336 positive cases over the course of the pandemic in the Bear River District: 3,560 in Cache County, 756 in Box Elder County and 20 in Rich County.

Among the new positives in the district, 3,267 are considered “recovered”. There are now 10 from the district in hospitals, seven from Cache County and three from Box Elder County. The total number of positive cases detected since early-March in Utah has grown to 91,957 and among all those positive tests since the outbreak, 68,092 are considered recovered.

In the most recent report from Idaho there are 50,610 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state. There have been 517 COVID deaths in Idaho with 208 positive tests in Franklin County, 53 positives in Bear Lake County and 29 in Oneida County.

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5 Comments

  • Blayne October 16, 2020 at 11:06 pm Reply

    It’s clear mask wearing and social distancing have very little effect on the spread of the virus. The more mask wearing, the higher the numbers go. It’s time to get on with our lives.

    • LD October 18, 2020 at 10:16 am Reply

      I agree. More people than ever wearing masks and the numbers go up. No wants to address the real problems: humans consuming animals and the abysmal state of the average person’s health.

  • George Brown jr October 17, 2020 at 2:51 pm Reply

    It is clear that you have no idea how read an actual study. It is time for you to educate yourself with peered reviewed actual science. Next you will tell me that hell and eternal damnation are in the bible.

    If you decide to respond to this please cite the chapter and the verse where hell is mentioned.

  • Nathan Gray October 18, 2020 at 12:58 pm Reply

    Governor Herbert needs to take action on this. We all want to keep our jobs and support ourselves and/or our families. We need to face the reality of the situation we are in. We need to put “love of neighbor” into practice. There are some activities we can’t do temporarily until we get this under control. Can we make such sacrifices as a team? We all want this virus to be a thing of the past, but it will stick around the more we don’t wear our masks and practice proper social distancing. Let’s just put on our big boy pants and get this thing over with already!

  • Steve Moreland October 23, 2020 at 9:42 am Reply

    So after I was assigned a home health worker after I was in a particular nasty car accident, I was having a conversation with him about Covid 19 yesterday. He works in Utah, but lives in Idaho. Normal for this valley and our proximity to that state, but it seems that a co u ple of months ago he contracted coronvirus and was counted in both Utah, and Idaho. I was a little taken aback. We read the articles, see the same news reports, about the numbers daily, and like others have mentioned in this section, more people are wearing masks. In these turbulent times, I wonder how many situations such as this have occurred? I’m no conspiracy kind of guy, but is this a funding ploy for government, hospital aid numbers, schools funding, politics, or inept government? Or is it a combination of all of the above? Remember even a percentage point higher sends folks into a panic. I find it really strange that the same people who are the ones in charge of approving a vaccine when it becomes available, cannot even count very well. Of course they may be not just making aggregious errors, they know exactly what they are doing, and that scares me most of all.

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