Utah coronavirus cases up 2,244 Monday, as state drops restrictions on social gatherings

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A new public health order going into effect at midnight will maintain a statewide mask order, but will change restrictions on social gatherings into recommendations, state officials said Monday.

Masks continue to be required statewide in public indoor setting or outdoors when physical distancing is not feasible, said Rich Saunders, the acting director of the Utah Department of Health.

He advised Utahns to now ”think through the numbers that would attend social gatherings.” In high transmission areas, which cover much of the state, “you might consider 10 or fewer. In a low transmission area, you might consider 50 or fewer,” he said.

Meanwhile, with 2,244 new coronavirus cases reported Monday, a lower number than recent days, Utah’s rate of new diagnoses still continued to rise.

For the past week, the state has averaged 3,349 new positive test results a day, a record high, the state department of health reported. “This measure continues to increase,” state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said at the Monday news conference.

However, she noted, the rolling seven-day average positivity rate of tests “is starting to see some stabilization,” because of the push for more testing.

Utah’s death toll from the coronavirus stood at 797 Monday, with four fatalities reported since Sunday:

There have been 136 deaths reported in the past two weeks, the virus’s deadliest 14-day stretch since the pandemic began.

Hospitalizations held steady Monday, with 545 Utah patients concurrently admitted, UDOH reported. In total, 7,602 patients have been hospitalized in Utah for COVID-19, with more than 1,400 of those reported in the past two weeks.

“We’re kind of at the full occupancy rate when it comes to ICU beds,” Gov. Gary Herbert said,noting that non-ICU beds are available, and “they’re getting care. They’re just not getting as good of care.”

Dunn added: “Our hospitalizations that are going to happen in the next week are a result of the cases we’ve had in the past couple of weeks.”

For the past week, 23.6% of all tests have come back positive — a rate that indicates a large number of infected people are not being tested, state officials have said.

There were 7,462 new test results reported Monday, far below the weeklong average of about 14,000 new tests per day.

Herbert said Monday that the state is continuing to urge people to be tested, including those who are asymptomatic. The state’s goal is to perform 250,000 to 300,000 tests a week, he said.

After the emergency order issued Nov. 6, which expires at midnight Monday, Herbert said, “I would hope to have some stabilization.” He also noted the test positivity rate has settled down a bit, but “we’re certainly not out of the woods yet.”

Describing the new public health order, Saunders said state officials continue to support students learning in person in classrooms. And starting Nov. 30, he said, students and staff participating in extracurricular activities will have to get tested for COVID-19 every other week.

For club sports, Saunders said, participants will be checked for symptoms and asked about recent exposures before every event and practice.

Taylor Randall, dean of the David Eccles School of Business, said Utah’s economy, though in a better position than other states, is “fragile.” He added that “we’ve got to find a way to bridge the health of our economy” until a vaccine is available, urging Utahns to wear masks.

Mask mandates are proven to lower the incidence of COVID-19 infections, save lives and also boost commercial activity, he said a new Utah study suggests.

“We know that people are suffering on both sides of the equation, economically and health care wise,” Herbert said, adding that he has aimed to strike a balance between health requirements and economic openness.

He cited two states with high per-capita death rates — New York, where the economy was shut down, and South Dakota, which kept the economy open — as examples of how different policies can have the same unfortunate outcomes.

“We’re not as bad as some places, and in some ways we’re better than most,” Herbert said.

Herbert said some health care workers could get the vaccine as soon as December, and most Utahns will have access to a vaccine by the middle of next year. Getting a vaccine, Herbert said, “should give us some hope, the light at the end of the tunnel.”

For the Thanksgiving holiday, Herbert urged Utahns to keep gatherings small.

“You increase the risk when you bring people into your home, into the four walls of your house,” Herbert said. “That’s just the harsh reality.”

Potluck dinners, where everyone brings a dish, can increase the risk, Herbert said, who added that health recommendations are to have one person prepare and serve the food, wearing a mask.

He also stressed good hand-washing, “20 seconds — sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to yourself twice,” Herbert said.