COVID-19 infections in Utah rise again on Friday, with 727 new cases

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Friday brought another large number of new coronavirus cases to Utah, with 727 infections reported a day after the reported delays produced the largest single-day jump in new cases on Thursday.

Hospitalizations also continued to rise, with 28 new admissions reported on Friday. That brings the total of 14 days to 455, the highest in any two-week period since the pandemic began.

There were 198 Utah residents hospitalized for COVID-19 as of Friday, the Utah Department of Health reported. Over the past seven days, Utah hospitals have treated an average of 199 coronavirus patients each day, the highest one-week average since the start of the pandemic.

There was a new death reported on Friday: a Weber County man, between the ages of 65 to 84, who was hospitalized when he died.

Despite Thursday’s big jump, some parts of Utah saw an even bigger case surge on Friday. Tooele County and the Tri-county Health District of Uintah, Daggett and Duchesne counties reported each of their largest jumps in a single day on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Utah County and Southwest Utah and Weber-Morgan Health Departments posted their biggest increases in a single day, in addition to Thursday’s abnormal counts.

Thursday’s case numbers rose due to a digital reporting error that delayed the count of several previously identified cases, as well as the inclusion of cases diagnosed by antigen testing.

The state seven-day average for new cases was 599 on Friday, below Thursday’s average of 619. Over the past week, 10.3% of coronavirus tests in Utah tested positive.

Of the 32,572 Utahns who tested positive for the coronavirus, 19,862 are considered “recovered,” meaning they have survived at least three weeks after diagnosis.