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There are 177 new diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in Utah and seven more hospitalizations, according to new figures released by the Utah Department of Health on Sunday.
There are, however, no new deaths reported. Utah’s death count stands at eight, the most recent involving an elderly woman who was living at a Salt Lake City nursing home.
The total cases in Utah now stand at 1,605, up from 1,428, while the key metric of how many people have been hospitalized is now at 124, up from 117.
The number of people reported tested has risen to 30,892, up from 28,043 the day before.
Sunday’s totals show a relatively moderate increase in cases (a 12% jump) and hospitalizations (a 6% increase), roughly in line with each day of the past week.
Still, the past week has shown sizable increases across the board.
From the time of Utah’s first diagnosis was announced March 6 to one week ago, on March 29, Utah had reported 719 total cases and two deaths (hospitalizations were not yet reported at that time).
Which means that, in just the seven days since, the state has seen 886 new diagnosed cases and six deaths.
Of course, such numbers reflect what has been happening in the United States at large.
The number of people infected in the U.S. has exceeded 335,000, with the death toll climbing past 9,500, according to a tracking map updated by Johns Hopkins University. Meanwhile it’s only going to get worse, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told Fox News on Sunday. "This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives.
“This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localized,” Adams added. “It’s going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that.”
He called upon state governors who have not yet issued stay-at-home orders to do just that: “If you can’t give us 30 days, governors, give us, give us a week, give us what you can, so that we don’t overwhelm our health care systems over this next week.”
Johns Hopkins has put the total number of confirmed cases worldwide at over 1.2 million, and the global death toll at more than 69,000.
As for the 177 new cases in Utah reported Sunday, Salt Lake County accounted for most of those, with 91, going from 650 to 741. Four of the new hospitalizations also occurred in Salt Lake County.
Utah County, which has seen its number of positive tests for COVID-19 spike in recent days, saw the second-most new cases in Utah on Sunday, with 30 new diagnoses and one new hospitalization.
Summit County — which for a time had one of the fastest-growing rates in the nation and became the first county in the state to issue a stay-at-home order — has 26 new cases and two new hospitalizations.
Of the 30 remaining new cases in the state, eight came from Wasatch County; five from Davis County; four apiece from Bear River, Weber/Morgan and southwest Utah; two each from Tooele and central Utah; and there was one new case in southeast Utah.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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