Utah mandates masks amid virus surge
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has declared a state of emergency and ordered a statewide mask mandate in an attempt to reduce a surge in
COVID- 19 hospitalizations that is testing the state’s hospital capacity.
Late Sunday, Herbert and the Utah Department of Health issued executive and public health orders requiring residents to wear face coverings in public, at work and when they are within six feet of people who don’t live in their households.
Several of the state’s largest counties already require masks, but Herbert, a Republican, had resisted extending the rule to the entire state despite a two- month surge in coronavirus cases.
Herbert said that the time to debate masks had passed and insisted that his orders wouldn’t shut down the economy.
The new rules also call for a two- week pause on school extracurricular activities, including athletic events — with the exception of high school championship games and intercollegiate athletic events as long as testing and social distancing guidelines are being followed.
Herbert ordered a limit on “casual social gatherings” to household members only.
Those orders began Monday and are set to last until Nov. 23.
By Jan. 1, all Utah students at public and private universities who attend at least one class per week in person must be tested weekly for COVID- 19.
On Sunday, Utah health authorities announced a new high in the number of coronavirus hospitalizations and 2,386 new confirmed COVID- 19 cases. The state’s seven- day average of newly confirmed daily cases has reached a record- breaking 2,290.
In the last two weeks, Utah’s positivity average — the percentage of coronavirus tests that are positive — has increased from 18.5% to 20.6%, according to state data. At least 659 state residents have died of the coronavirus and more than 132,000 have been infected.
Utah also will ramp up its contact tracing efforts and its testing of younger individuals who usually are asymptomatic, including the college testing, testing for students engaged in extracurricular activities and, eventually, workplace testing for people 35 and younger, Herbert’s office said.