SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health's latest COVID-19 counts show there have been 346 confirmed cases in Utah.
According to UDOH, 6,837 have now been tested for the disease. About five percent of those tests have returned as positive. About 10 percent of the people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Utah required hospitalization.
One person, a Davis County man, died of COVID-19.
Dr. Angela Dunn, State Epidemiologist for the Utah Department of Health, said Utahns' social distancing measures are working in limiting the spread of the disease.
"I think we can be confident that we are bending the curve here in Utah with our social-distancing measures and protecting the health of Utahns because we are seeing those low positive rates," she said. "Right now, we are not seeing an exponential increase in cases day-to-day and that's a good sign. It means that our social distancing measures are working."
Dunn said the vast majority of Utah's COVID-19 cases are in people ages 25-65, and cases in children aren't as severe as those in adults.
"Children are tending to recover on their own; their own immune system is fighting off COVID-19. However, they can be very good spreaders of the disease, so we're asking if any children are sick, parents keep them at home and especially keep them away from older adults who might be more vulnerable," Dunn said.
According to Dunn, people who don't have COVID-19 symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath) do not need to seek testing for the disease.
People who do have COVID-19 symptoms are urged to contact clinicians by phone or telehealth services or visit a drive-through testing site. Call 800-456-7707 or visit coronavirus.utah.gov for further information on drive-through testing.
UDOH urges business owners not to require employees to obtain a doctor's note for either taking sick leave or returning to work.
"We don't want people overloading our clinics and our healthcare systems, requesting notes at this point. We really want to save that healthcare system for those who need the care the most, whether it's [COVID-19] or other things," Dunn said. "In every other state and country [where the healthcare system is overwhelmed, cases go off like wildfires."
Dunn said local healthcare providers need surgical-grade gowns, gloves, face shields, N95 masks and surgical masks.
Click here to see the full list of items needed. Handmade items cannot be accepted.
