University of Utah Health physician assistant Christine Tang stands in front of fans to keep cool as she waits for the next car to arrive at a U. Wellness Bus COVID-19 test event at the Sorenson Multicultural Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. | Steve Griffin, Deseret News

By Lisa Riley Roche

Lisa has been a Deseret News reporter for more than 30 years, covering Utah's Olympics and politics.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah health officials reported 376 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday, but no new deaths.

Also Saturday, Gov. Gary Herbert extended his executive order requiring that face masks be worn in all state facilities until Aug. 20. The governor did not issue a statewide mask mandate after the state’s rolling seven-day average for positive tests fell below 500 cases last week, but he has set a new goal of dropping below 400 cases by Sept. 1.

Saturday’s COVID-19 case numbers put the state’s rolling seven-day average for positive tests at 426 a day, and the rolling seven-day average for the percentage of positive laboratory tests at 9.3%. The average is down from Friday, when 460 new confirmed cases and five additional deaths were reported, for a total 335 deaths in the state.

The majority of the cases are still among the 25 to 44 age group, as they represent 38% of all cases in Utah, the data show. Just 1% of cases appear in the 85-and-older group, yet, the same age group has had 80 deaths since mid-March. The largest number of deaths appears in the age 65 to 84 group, which has had 162 deaths due to COVID-19.

State epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn has said that the Utah Department of Health has been very careful to ensure that COVID-19 did, in fact, cause each of the 335 total deaths that have been reported as such. She said those individuals would not have died had they not contracted the virus.

There was a 7,255 increase in the number of people tested, bringing the total number tested in Utah to 566,355. Currently, 195 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, 77 of those are in the intensive care unit. The health department reports that 2,604 have been hospitalized in Utah since the beginning of the outbreak.

State Sen. Deidre Henderson, R-Spanish Fork, tweeted Saturday she has tested positive for COVID-19. Henderson, the running mate of the GOP candidate for governor in the November election, Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, announced Friday she was experiencing symptoms and two family members had already tested positive for the virus.

“No big surprise, my COVID test came back positive,” Henderson said in a tweet. “Stay safe out there, everyone. Wear your masks to protect others — by the time you have symptoms you’ve already been contagious for a couple of days and could have unknowingly infected other people.”

More than 33,115 people in Utah are believed to have recovered from the virus and its resulting illness, according to the health department.

The latest breakdown of Utah cases, hospitalizations and deaths by health district:

  • Salt Lake County, 20,446; 1,338 hospitalized; 189 deaths.
  • Utah County, 8,630; 399 hospitalized; 37 deaths.
  • Davis County, 3,194; 180 hospitalized; 21 deaths.
  • Southwest Utah, 3,191; 179 hospitalized; 25 deaths.
  • Weber-Morgan, 2,800; 175 hospitalized; 25 deaths.
  • Bear River (Box Elder, Cache, Rich), 2,291; 105 hospitalized; 6 deaths.
  • Summit County, 706; 53 hospitalized; 1 death.
  • San Juan County, 648; 83 hospitalized; 25 deaths.
  • Tooele County, 579; 30 hospitalized; 0 deaths.
  • Wasatch County, 558; 21 hospitalized; 4 deaths.
  • Central Utah, 420; 25 hospitalized; 2 deaths.
  • TriCounty (Uinta Basin), 178; 11 hospitalized; 0 deaths.
  • Southeast Utah, 110; 5 hospitalized; 0 deaths.

Contributing: Wendy Leonard