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0000017b-652b-d50a-a3ff-f7efb02e0000KPCW's COVID-19 news coverage for Summit County and Wasatch County, Utah. 0000017b-652b-d50a-a3ff-f7efb02f0000You can also visit the Utah Department of Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization websites for additional information.

Masks, Bandanas, Neckie's To Be Worn In Public; Cover The Face

CDC

Summit County has issued a number of COVID-19 orders requiring people stay home, yet Utah’s Governor has not put a statewide Stay-at-Home order in place. Now the federal government recommends using masks in public after weeks of the CDC proclaiming, they won’t prevent spread of the virus.

Summit County Public Health Director Rich Bullough says the social distancing order means no social gatherings, of any size takes place, not in a driveway and not at trailheads, and not outside of the family unit. He says the behaviors he has seen have been mostly compliant.

Bullough says County Attorney Margaret Olson told the Governor’s office she would use discretion when applying the law.

She basically said she was going to use discretion in applying the law because you know some of the orders that have been put out do not include illegal penalties. Margaret [Olson] is very sensitive and I think has great judgment and so I don't believe there's been citations issued. But absolutely there have been groups that have been told to disband and they have done so.”

The message change about masks may come out as a national directive from the CDC but hasn’t been part of the current list of Summit County COVID-19 orders. Bullough says wearing a mask can prevent someone who is sick from spreading the disease.

“It’s important to note it doesn’t have to be, apparently a surgeons mask. It can be a bandana around your mouth. It can be a hand sewn mask.”

Governor Gary Herbert issued a “Stay Safe, Stay Home” directive last week asking Utahn’s to help slow the spread and flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections, but unlike Summit County’s order, it doesn’t have legal backing.

Bullough disagrees with Governor Herbert’s decision to not impose a Stay-at-Home order statewide. He thinks it compromises the efforts of his colleagues to prevent the spread as effectively.

“I think it’s a mistake and from my side, as a local health officer, looking at my colleagues around the state scrambling to try to find some uniformity in what we're doing across our state, across counties and across health districts, in my opinion this is not the best way to do business. He has his reasons I suppose for not doing it. But I do think it’s a mistake and I do think it would help our fight to contain this."

Bullough says Summit County has not had many visitors showing up with the virus which he says means not many people are coming to Utah to ride out the pandemic. If people are planning to come to Summit County Bullough says:

“Don’t come here.” Bullough says “One thing the public needs to understand, and we've done our best to get this out; Summit County is not a safe place to be right now. We have high rates of the disease here and so it's naive for people to think that they're going to flee to Summit County to ride this thing out in a safe haven.”

A link to Summit County’s Public Health COVID-19 site can be found here.

 

KPCW reporter Carolyn Murray covers Summit and Wasatch County School Districts. She also reports on wildlife and environmental stories, along with breaking news. Carolyn has been in town since the mid ‘80s and raised two daughters in Park City.
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