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Utah to close most of its state-sponsored COVID-19 testing sites

Jakayla Toney
/
Unsplash

The state of Utah will soon close many of its state-sponsored COVID-19 testing sites and will stop reporting daily case counts due to the rapid decline in cases moving into spring.

255 new COVID-19 cases and four additional deaths were reported since Friday according to health officials. According to date, 112 of those cases were confirmed on Friday, 87 were confirmed on Saturday, and 65 cases were confirmed on Sunday. Utah has seen a significant drop in reported cases throughout the last several weeks.

In a statement released on Monday from the Utah Department of Health, Utah is slowly transitioning to a ‘steady state’ response rate for the pandemic and the department will focus more on long-term, sustainable responses.

State health officials have also mentioned that they will discontinue releasing daily updates for COVID-19 starting on March 31 and will start treating data similarly to how other respiratory diseases are reported. Case counts will be updated each week on Thursday.

Officials say that testing is still an important tool for residents and that anybody with underlying conditions should still continue to get tested whenever needed. People planning on traveling where negative COVID-19 tests are required are also being encouraged to seek testing.

Jared Gereau is pursuing a Journalism major with an emphasis in Social Media at Utah State University. He is planning on using his experience to pursue a career with USU Athletics sometime after he graduates. In his free time, Jared enjoys watching movies, playing games and creating content for his YouTube channel.