As part of an order from the Governor those traveling into Utah both through the Salt Lake City Airport and by nine roadways will be asked to fill out a voluntary form about their possible exposure to COVID-19.
At the Friday afternoon briefing Utah Commissioner of Public Safety Jess Anderson explained travelers accessing the state via roadways—including the I-80 connection between Summit County and Wyoming—will not be physically stopped.
“Vehicles will receive a safety alert," Anderson explained. "A notification alert that will come through on a cellular device that then will ask them to be in compliance with and follow the orders that are given to them through that notification.”
The form should take less than five minutes to fill out. Airport travelers will also be asked to fill out the form although Utah Department of Transportation spokesperson John Gleason explains those leaving an airport terminal will receive a postcard with instructions.
“Because the technology won’t allow us to pinpoint the people who are coming off of the airplanes whose destination is Utah. It's necessary for us to distribute these postcards," Gleason said. "Rather than the text messages that everyone else coming into those different access points are going to receive.”
Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Joe Dougherty said the text message for roadway users is sent using the integrated public alert and warning system, a system set up by FEMA and the FCC which uses cell phone towers to send out data.
“We retain no data on cell phones," Dougherty continued. "We won't even know how many people actually received that message, but we are confident that it works very well. As far as the data that's collected on the form, that data will be collected and given in a secure fashion to the Utah Department of Health. So that they can track that and trace any movement of someone who has coronavirus in the state.”
Exemptions will be given to commercial airline employees, Commercial drivers, public safety personnel, health care providers, active military and workers who live close and go back and forth across the state line.
“If your phone receives the alert one time, it is not supposed to receive that alert again," Dougherty explained. "However the alert does need to be reissued each day, because the federal regulations are that a wireless emergency alert can be active for 24 hours only. So, we're going to do our best to make sure that alerts do go out at the right time and that we're hitting the right people driving through those areas.”
At the briefing state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn also emphasized that due to increased testing capacity anyone with new shortness of breath or a cough or a fever can and should be tested for COVID-19.
