A Virtual conversation with Summit County Council Members Monday was dominated by discussion about the coronavirus. With the county contemplating a new Health Order this week to move to a Stabilization phase, citizens asked what impacts will be seen this summer—affecting everything from the County Fair to public and commercial pools.
During the Conversation, County Health Director Rich Bullough said their numbers are very favorable. The county has 359 COVID-19 cases, but most of those, 262, are Recovered patients.
And so far, the county hasn’t recorded any deaths. Bullough said he thinks that’s because they have a relatively healthy population, and a stellar group of local medical personnel.
He was asked how the county has decided that it’s time to try a gradual re-opening of the local economy. Bullough said they looked at several criteria.
“The first is a consistent decline in the number of new cases. Another is hospitalization and remember, a lot of what we have focused on for this entire response has been preserving our clinical capacity. And so that’s an important measure. But it’s further down. It’s kind of an outcome measure in some respects and we wanna be able to look at data further up the stream. The rate of infection from a single infected individual is another factor that we’re monitoring. The state has set a goal to have that below one—meaning, less than one person is infected by a person with COVID”
County officials were also asked if the Summit County Fair can take place this summer under the new Order. County Manager Tom Fisher said he thinks the Orange Phase will last from three to six months, so it will likely will have an effect on gatherings at the Fairgrounds.
“So we’ve put out the direction to our planners that we’re probably gonna do it differently. And a lot of different ways to do the most necessary events of the Fair, like the livestock sale, like 4-H judging of animals or Home Arts projects or Arts or those types of things that are included in the Fair. We still want to do as much as we can, but we also want to keep sick people safe in the process. So some of the large gathering events have to be talked about and have to perhaps be done a different way, or not done at all.”
County Council Member Chris Robinson said the traditional events like the Demolition Derby or the Rodeo would be more difficult to do, but it’s possible they could happen.
Asked whether schools will open this fall, Council Member Glenn Wright said that decision is made by the State Board of Education and local school boards. On a similar question, about the Park City Arts Festival, county officials said that’s up to the Kimball Art Center.
County officials also got questions about outdoor dining, pools used by private or public entities, laundromats and chiropractors.
“But we do anticipate chiropractors, salons, laundromats being allowed to open with restrictions, with specific information about masks, distancing, spacing and other screening processes for health etc both employees and patrons.”
Bullough said they will have to start looking at the COVID-19 outbreak as a regional problem. He said the numbers are worrisome from Utah County.
“A real black-and-white contrast between Summit County and Utah County right now. And part of that has to do with when the first cases showed up in Summit vs. Utah. They were in Summit County earlier, but we took aggressive action early on, and they’ve taken relatively little action. And their numbers are going through the roof right now. The state of Utah, frankly, is at risk of not being able to control this virus because of what’s going on in certain local health jurisdictions. Utah County’s numbers moving forward may be driving an increase state-wide that is going to effect whether or not we even in Summit County can transition to Yellow.”
In conclusion, Chris Robinson said that, at least, the shoulder season is a good time of year to confront the crisis.
“We’re going to have the COVID-19 coronavirus with us until we have a vaccine and have herd immunity. It’s a question of trying to manage risk. We’re not going to be able to operate. If we all want to go in a hole and completely isolate each other and go broke in the meantime, we could maybe prevent any infection. But there, it’s a good time I think in our seasonal economy to be looking at change. We’re going into a shoulder season. The second-homeowners may not have arrived. Even at the height of the summer season, it’s not a peak season. We’re gonna learn a lot. To that degree, we’re gonna take baby steps into this and adapt.”
Bullough said it’s still unclear if this strain of coronavirus will weaken in the hot, dry weather of summer. But they do anticipate that cases will surge again when colder weather returns in the fall.
“So if it slows down this summer, that’s wonderful. But we need to be prepared for the longer term. We had to react really quickly to this current outbreak. And I think we’ve done well as a community. That said, I think we can do even better in the fall if it surges, by making sure that we do some simple things like prepare more of a strategic plan for specific steps, like perhaps a new outbreak in the fall, so less reactive. And then secondly, begin to stockpile in earnest Personal Protective Equipment, other resources that businesses need, etc. So we’ll be busy this summer even if it does slow down. But let’s hope that it does. That said, it’s still gonna be in our community, so we still need to be prepared for it.”
Summit County Health Director Rich Bullough
