SALT LAKE CITY – Utah state government Gary Herbert issued a statewide masking mandate Sunday night as part of emergency orders directing Utahens to restrict social gatherings to their families to combat the current spread of COVID-19 in the state
Three days after Herbert revealed he had met with health and legislative officials to discuss the state of the coronavirus pandemic, the outgoing governor released a video message announcing a plan to slow the spread of COVID-19 and increase testing ahead of the upcoming Thanksgiving Day holiday
In conjunction with the Utah Department of Health, Herbert issued executive orders and public health orders concurrently while declaring a new state of emergency
He said, “We must do more, and we must do it now” “This is much more than mandates. This is for personal responsibility.”
Both orders will take effect on Monday at 1 AM MT, and will remain until at least Monday, November 23, representing the governor’s broadest reform measures so far as Utah has recorded its highest levels ever in the spread of the virus, including new cases and hospitalization rates, In the same week
Herbert said: “I ask you now, and I implore you, to do everything in your power to stop the spread of this disease.” “The day will come when we will not have to wear masks or social distance – when we will be able to see everyone we love and care about, embrace us and shake hands without worrying. About the spread of this disease without knowledge
“I hope this day will come sooner rather than later in the past when we had natural disasters. We all gathered to provide assistance to our neighbors, and explained everything we could to help them. This crisis is no different. It is time to end the division, and for us all to unite like Utah in providing any Sacrifices necessary to help our neighbor and restore recovery to our country. «
The recommendations come after a week of analysis conducted by Herbert in meetings with Dr. Robert R Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Deborah Birx, who heads the White House Coronavirus Response Task Force
In recent days, Herbert has expressed dismay at the increase in coronavirus cases in Utah; On Sunday, the epidemic set a record for positive tests for seven days of 206% cases per day The state also reported a new high of 424 hospital admissions currently from COVID-19, which raised the occupancy of the ICU in Utah to a record high. 782%
On Saturday, the United States reported a record increase in COVID-19 cases for the fourth consecutive day, according to Reuters, by more than 130.000; On Sunday, YOS has surpassed 10 million cases since the start of the epidemic.
Monday’s order represents a drastic change in the state’s response to the pandemic, but it also includes many requirements that health care professionals have demanded, for weeks and even months
“We are at a point where we need a big, bold intervention,” Eddie Steinhim, an infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare, said last week, when he added that intensive-care bed occupancy was 130% higher than it was at the end of 2019. We, from Healthcare, are appealing to the public to say, ‘Look at our intensive care unit, look at our hospitals, and look at these patients who are suffering’ it didn’t work
Herbert said in a message on Sunday that masks have proven to be the cheapest and easiest way to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
He added, « Masks do not negatively affect our economy, and wearing them is the easiest way to slow the spread of the virus. »
“We cannot bear to discuss this issue anymore. Individual freedom is definitely important, and it is our rule of law that protects that freedom. Laws are put in place to protect us all. This is why we have traffic lights, speed limits and seat belts, which is why we now have a mask mandate”
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While the state allowed individual cities and counties to limit large public gatherings, and the Governor’s Transition Index made recommendations to limit gatherings in public places, Herbert said it was time to do more.
This is why it even limits occasional gatherings in which anyone outside a person’s home participates for the next 14 days, or incubation of the virus
Herbert said, “To make a real difference in slowing the spread of COVID-19 and overcoming the dire situation in our hospitals, we all need to do more.” This is why we have restricted informal social gatherings during the next two weeks. This means that many of us may have to cancel plans. With extended family and friends this is a sacrifice for all of us but as the spread of disease slows, it will make a huge difference for our healthcare workers, who are most in need of our help. ”
Herbert said that anyone who is found to be organizing large gatherings of people will be fined $ 10,000 for each event, and state officials and prosecutors will hold him accountable, and said his office will publish information on safe gatherings for the upcoming holiday season « in the coming days ».
Focusing on the high prevalence among high school and college students in Utah, Herbert also called on young people to limit their social gatherings over the next two weeks.
« Students should not gather in social groups outside of normal school hours for the next two weeks, and they should be very careful after that, » Herbert
said. “Our data shows that individuals between the ages of 15 and 24 were not careful in their informal social encounters, and that the highest prevalence rates are now occurring among this age group.”
That same group is likely among the first to see an increase in testing – even if they don’t have any symptoms, Health Ministry spokesperson Tom Hodachko told KSL TV and added that this is the demographics that studies have shown are among the highest. Suppliers for asymptomatic spread
“The idea here is to go out and test as many individuals as possible, find out who these silent publishers are and basically remove them from the transmission group by isolating them during the infection period, Hudachko said
All kindergarten teachers up to 12th grade in Utah currently have access to PCR testing through TestUtah out of a total of 132,621 positive cases in the state for COVID-19, 7,940 of them associated with the 2020-21 school year that includes 5,977 students 1,020 teachers and 943 cases classified as « other / unknown », such as school volunteers and non-teachers, the state’s largest Alpine region, which includes most of the northern half of Utah County, reported 1,154 cases, including 156 active cases, The second-largest district in Davis has reported 1,160 cases, with 368 active cases, according to the state Coronavirus Dashboard for Schools
The Jordan School District in Salt Lake County reported 1,101 cases, with 217 active cases The Granite School District in Salt Lake County – which closed up to six of the area’s eight high schools in recent weeks – reported 863 cases, With 216 active cases; The Canyons district of Salt Lake County reported 689 cases, with 148 active cases The Nebo School District, or the southern part of Utah County, reported the second-highest number of cases with a total of 345 cases, despite only 67 active cases.
“Our schools have done a tremendous job in mitigating the severity of the virus in classrooms and buildings. Utah is also one of the few states that track and publish outbreak data on a public dashboard. These elements have been essential in keeping our school prevalence relatively low,” he said. Dickson “However, we are concerned about the high prevalence rates that appear to be emerging outside of the classroom. We believe that adding robust testing to students involved in out-of-school activities will help identify outbreaks more quickly and allow us to continue personalized learning wherever possible.” And our school communities are further protected. ”
There are currently no plans to cancel or postpone the remainder of the state soccer qualifiers, according to representatives from the Utah High School Activities Association. The organization recently ended the girls ‘volleyball tournaments on Saturday, and the tournaments were awarded in the remaining fall sports for girls, and for girls’ tennis, And cross-suburb, Class 1A baseball
Dickson told KSL TV that students who are on soccer teams will start testing the virus more frequently.
Beaver and Duchesne will contest the 2A Soccer Championship this weekend alongside the 3A Morgan Finalists and A & A and the tournament matches for 4A, 5A and 6A are scheduled for November 20-21, with 4A and 5A currently being held at Dixie State University in Saint George
While qualifying matches at the tournament are permitted to continue, all winter sporting activities and practices, including training and aerobics in basketball for boys and girls and wrestling boys and girls, will be suspended until at least November 23, UHSAA said Sunday night in an email to schools Members
“UHSAA will reach out to member schools as soon as information becomes available about the protocols and procedures going forward,” Email has been partially read. The safety of students and Utah communities will remain of the utmost importance to the association and its member high schools.
Intercollegiate athletics will also continue, because protocols already exist for mass testing of athletes, coaches, staff, and employees through the NCAA and other organizations. This means that the University of Utah vs. UCLA match, which was announced earlier on Sunday, will move day to day. Next Saturday, it will be allowed to continue and Utah is also set to host Fresno on Saturday in Logan.
BYU has a farewell week, but the Cougars are set to host North Alabama at FCS level on Saturday, November 21
Despite changes and a two-week hiatus in most extracurricular activities, some education advocates and officials believe that it is not enough.
“We express our appreciation to the government” Heidi Matthews, President of the Utah Education Association, said Gary Herbert for his call for strengthening measures that address the rapid spread of COVID-19 in our community. Unfortunately, the Governor’s Emergency Declaration did not go far enough in addressing the serious problems facing students and teachers in our public schools
“As indicated in the EU statement issued last Friday, November 6, we are calling on the governor and local school boards to require all public secondary schools in communities where COVID-19 is high to adopt instruction at home and we also call on the governor and school boards to work with primary schools. To find practical solutions to support the health and safety of teachers
« There is a clear contradiction in the call to restrict social gatherings while our public schools continue to have classes among the largest in the country
“Our public school teachers simply cannot continue to be ignored in their concerns about social distancing, testing, appropriate quarantine measures, and workloads We have seen multiple schools go back and forth from personal to home learning due to the outbreak and quarantine This is clearly a cycle They do not help control the spread of the virus, and as teachers, we can unequivocally say that continuous boycotts are not in the interest of student learning. We believe that continuing personal learning amid record numbers of COVID-19 infection rates poses an unacceptable level of risk to our students, teachers and communities.
The plan, which follows CDC guidelines in ensuring the wearing of masks, limiting social gatherings, and testing youth, is fully supported by Government Lieutenant Spencer Cox, recently elected to be the next state governor
“There was a lot we didn’t know at the start of the pandemic,” Gov said, Cox elected, “Now we know better what we face, and we know more about how to fight it. We know that masks work. We know limiting gatherings and keeping distance from each other learns. Our specialist medical professionals have more about treatments that work to combat disease I’m sure we can overcome this, but only if we each do more as leaders we know testing is an important part of our response while we ask Utahns to do some heavy lifting, we’re also ramping up. Tests are so targeted at age groups that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tell us they are often asymptomatic «
Cox told KSL TV that CDC officials have promised more testing resources and that the state has hired 150 other contact tracing tools in the past two weeks.
“Unfortunately, due to the way the test was implemented by the federal government, we never had enough tests to do an asymptomatic or a control test,” he said, “when Dr. Birx was here last week and promised us more supplies so we could From doing that, and that would be very helpful.This is what has been done for example by the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball. This is how they were able to move forward with their games by controlling and testing everyone. We want to be able to do it with secondary sports, and we want To do this with our young people so that we can find this virus before it spreads «
College students will be tested weekly for COVID-19, especially if they live on campus or attend at least one in-person class each week. These increased tests will eventually expand to include high school students who participate in extracurricular activities such as athletics and workers under Age 35, high school teachers
The Utah National Guard will also be deployed to assist with contact-tracing efforts as the governor rolls out a new rapid-testing program for asymptomatic individuals, with a focus on college students, students who participate in extracurricular activities, and high school teachers
Ultimately, all people 35 years of age or younger will have access to the workplace test, since this age group is most likely to have no symptoms when testing positive for the virus, the order reads
Rich Saunders, Executive Director of the Department of Health, said limiting the spread of asymptomatic individuals is the key to further disrupting the course of the epidemic.
“Some time ago, we were able to test anyone showing symptoms of COVID-19,” he said, “But we know that asymptomatic spread is an important factor in this epidemic and we have to test more than just those who feel sick. Fortunately, as science progresses. , These tests are becoming less invasive. «
To support new testing requirements, the Utah Higher Education System announced Sunday night that it will expand its weekly campus testing statewide to its 230,000 students.
“We can reach a large portion of the Utah population through our campus communities, and through increased and consistent testing, we can slow the spread of COVID-19 in Utah,” said State Commissioner for Higher Education Dave Wollstenholme, “We support the requirement to test our students weekly. To detect COVID-19, we are in a position to make a positive impact. ”
“Yes, there are people who think this is not enough and some think it is too much but let’s agree on one thing: The lives and souls of every Utah are important. We must stand together behind these two-week endeavors. This is the only way to have a chance at success.”
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« Salt Lake County and Utah are facing a crisis as COVID-19 cases increase, » Wilson said in a statement. « I support recognition of state leaders and take stricter measures. We will work together within our societies and with the state to do everything we can to protect our families and hospitals. It is up to each of us to limit social gatherings and activities in the near future. We can do that. Together we have flattened the curve before, and we will do it once. » Other «
Gary Herbert, Utah, Coronavirus, State of Emergency
World News – US – “We must do more”: statewide mask mandate, social gathering boundaries coming to Utah amid COVID -19 lunge strength
SOURCE: https://www.w24news.com
