Herbert: Some Areas Will Be Moving To Lower Risk Levels

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Gov. Gary Herbert on Thursday announced some hard-hit areas of the state could move from the orange to the yellow risk phase of reopening, and another area will be moving to green on Friday.

The cities of Bluff and Mexican Hat were recently moved from the low-risk yellow phase back to the moderate-risk orange phase due to the severity of the coronavirus pandemic. The governor said city leaders have asked for those areas to now return to the yellow phase.

Health officials in Kane County have also requested to have the county moved to the green, or “new normal” phase.

Herbert said health data supports both the requests and the state will continue to analyze data trends with an eye toward balancing overall health risks and protecting high-risk populations.

“Based on the Southwest Health Department’s recommendation and our view of the data, we are comfortable allowing Kan County to transition to green health risk status — the new normal — effective tomorrow,” he said.

Kane County has had zero percent ICU bed use for the past two weeks, very low community transmission and a low number of cases, according to the Utah COVID-19 Community Task Force.

The governor spoke at a press conference along with state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn, who reported 388 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and three new deaths.

Two of the three patients who died were Salt Lake County residents. One was a woman older than 85 who was a long-term care facility resident. The other was a man between the ages of 60 – 85 who was hospitalized at the time of death. The third patient who died was a Utah County man between the ages of 18 – 60 who was hospitalized at the time of death.

There have been a total of 13,252 total confirmed cases and 131 deaths, according to UDOH.

The state has issued 254,668 tests, and the rate of positives is at 5.2%.

Of those who tested positive, 968 required hospitalization. Currently, there are 119 patients hospitalized for the coronavirus in Utah.