Governor Herbert announced as part of Utah’s coronavirus response, much of the state will be moved to the low risk category on Saturday. The Wasatch Back is one of five areas in the state that will remain at moderate risk for at least for another week.
Utah Governor Gary Herbert announced on Thursday that most of the state will be moved from the orange moderate phase to the yellow low risk phase. The exception to the move includes Summit and Wasatch Counties as well as Grand County in southern Utah, along with Salt Lake City and West Valley City. Governor Herbert says they’re working with those areas to move them to the yellow phase.
“We’ll be working with the local health departments, local elected officials, to see what additional things need to be done,” Herbert said. “Again, I think even in those areas the trend is in the right direction. So, I'm expecting that with our help and working together, we can get them to yellow in a very short period of time.”
Jefferson Burton, co-chair of the COVID-19 emergency commission discusses how they made the decision to keep the Wasatch Back in the orange phase.
“We looked at the data points very closely in consultation with local health officers,” Burton explained. “I can't overstress that enough. Those are boots on the ground, they see the situation very closely. Also in consultation with the elected officials, and so that decision isn’t made in a vacuum. Summit County's numbers are trending very positively. They were just on the edge and based on consultation with that local health officer and elected officials, decided to stay orange for one more week, and we will reevaluate that. That's the other point I want to make, we're looking at these numbers daily and reevaluating if a change is warranted.”
Wasatch County Health Department says while they meet many criteria to move to the yellow low risk category, a few areas remain at the orange level. One of those moderate risk criteria is the positivity rate which is the ratio of the number of positive cases per the number of overall tests conducted. The department says data is moving in the right direction and if trends continue, they will make a request to the governor’s office to move Wasatch County to the yellow low-risk level.
Changes for most of the state as a result of the move to low risk include increasing the limit of social gatherings from 20 to 50, travel restrictions will be lifted. Swimming pools and drivers ed courses will be allowed to open, team sports will be allowed with frequent symptom checking and social distancing of spectators.
Social distancing or wearing masks when social distancing is not possible remain an active part of the low-risk phase.
The governor said as the public follows guidelines they hope to move the state from yellow to green in the next few months.
“It's going to be up to us as individuals to follow the directions that have been given and care about not only our own health and wellbeing, but that of our neighbor,” Herbert continued. “It really is a matter of protecting ourselves and as we do that with masks, we protect those around us. As we wear masks, the incidence of transfer of the coronavirus dramatically decreases.”
At the meeting high-risk individuals were asked to continue to take precautions. Over 90% of Utahns who have died from coronavirus were over 65 years of age and had serious medical conditions. Additional data shared included that 99% of Utahns have recovered from coronavirus with 92% recovering at home.
