What you need to know about mask mandates in Utah - Deseret News

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Utah’s official statewide mask mandate may have ended Saturday, but there’s still a long list of places where face coverings still must be worn — and the long-standing recommendations from health experts and the governor to mask up in public to slow the spread of COVID-19 haven’t changed.

“I think that’s a really good thing,” Gov. Spencer Cox said Monday, adding he had hoped to see the statewide mandate stay in place longer. “We were pushing for May, we wanted to get more people vaccinated. But the Legislature wanted March and we were able to get them to April.”

The governor urged Utahns to keep wearing masks.

“I don’t like it. I don’t know anybody that likes it. But it’s a very, very, very small price to pay for keeping people safe. That’s what we’d ask people to do, to be respectful,” he told KSL Newsradio.

Places where masks are still required:

• Many grocery stores and other retailers and businesses that choose to require customers to wear masks.
• Intermountain Healthcare, University of Utah Health and other health care providers.
• Utah Transit Authority buses, TRAX and FrontRunner.
• Salt Lake City International Airport.
• In public settings throughout Salt Lake City.
• In public settings throughout Moab and Grand County.
• At all Salt Lake County government facilities.
• At all state of Utah government facilities.
• In all K-12 schools throughout Utah through June 15.
• Public university and college campuses, and Brigham Young University.
• At all federal buildings.

Utah Department of Health spokesman Tom Hudachko said the state isn’t keeping track of every place masks are still required. He said Utahns should have a mask at the ready and again, be respectful of the entities that ask that face coverings be worn.

Cox recognizes that not everyone is supportive of the health measure, acknowledging incidents occurred over the weekend including at a Salt Lake City store that closed after a man who was asked to leave because he wouldn’t wear a mask threatened to return with a gun.

“That’s unacceptable,” the governor said. “We will hold those people accountable and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.” He said Utahns need to “be kind with each other. We know it’s been a hard go for everyone and we just encourage people to be safe, to respect the property rights of businesses and others.”

The new law passed in March still allows businesses as well as local governments to require masks. Also, face coverings still need to worn in K-12 schools, and at gatherings of 50 or more people, when social distancing is not possible.

The school mask mandate stays in place until mid-June, the end of the current school year, but the law spells out that other restrictions end as soon as the state has 1.63 million first COVID-19 vaccine doses, likely in mid-May, if Utah’s case counts and hospitalization rates remain low.

Hudachko said Utahns are back to where they were before then-Gov. Gary Herbert issued a statewide mask mandate last November, having to be aware of what requirements each individual public or private entity has decided to put into place.

“Our recommendations haven’t changed,” he said. “We think that everybody should continue to wear masks when they’re in public, especially in indoor places where physical distancing is difficult. We’ve been consistent with that message. Whether there is a statewide requirement or not, that is the public health recommendation.”

The state health department spokesman said while some are likely to stop wearing masks where they’re not required, he remains “hopeful that enough people are still willing to do the right thing for a little bit longer so we can get to the finish line.”

The governor and state health officials had hoped to tie removing the statewide mask mandate with having enough first vaccine doses for 70% of the population — the 1.63 million number in the new law. Hudachko said Utah is closing in on 1.1 million first doses.

A new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll found that Utahns are split over ending the statewide mask mandate, with 44% saying it should have continued beyond last Saturday, and only 4% agreeing the decision should have been made solely by elected officials.

‘People will figure it out’

Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, the sponsor of what was known as the “end game” bill, said there may be some initial confusion about where masks still need to be worn, but “you’ve got have a starting point of rolling back restrictions, and this was the starting point. People will figure it out.”

Ray said he makes a point of shopping only at stores that don’t require masks. He said mandating masks is a decision for each business to make, not the government, and that mandates put in place by private companies can remain indefinitely.

“It’s up to the individual business. I’m sure some are getting pushback for it. But I’m not going to sit here and say a business should or a business shouldn’t. As a consumer, I’ll be able to make the choice,” Ray said. “I fully believe we live in the USA. You have a right to choose.”

When it comes to government entities continuing to mandate masks, any confusion that causes the public is “not my fault. Nobody made those government officials make that decision. That’s on them,” he said. “I don’t think they’re necessary right now. People are still careful.”

Ray said people “don’t trust the government any more,” after hearing mixed messages over the past year about the virus. “That’s what’s so hard for people, is you get information coming from 10 different directions with 10 different answers. I think it goes back to personal choice.”

He said the real confusion was over when COVID-19 restrictions would end.

“Nobody knew when this was going to be done,” Ray said. “We need to put some sanity back.”

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who announced last week she was using her executive powers to keep a mask mandate in place for public settings within the city, said “it’s understandable that there may be a bit of confusion.”

But the mayor said cases have recently plateaued in the city rather than dropped, so “it is still important to wear a mask here. We appreciate people taking the time to follow the requirements, even if they may not initially be aware, to mask up in Salt Lake City.”

Monday’s COVID-19 numbers

The state health department Monday reported 185 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of cases in Utah to 390,289 since the pandemic began more than a year ago. There were no new deaths reported for a second day in a row Monday, so Utah’s death toll remains at 2,159 lives lost.

The rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 398 per day, and 2,519 more Utahns have been tested for the virus since Sunday, with 4,813 total tests conducted since then. That puts the rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of tests at 3.7% when all results are included and 7.4% when multiple tests by an individual in the past 90 days are excluded.

There have been 1,708,002 total vaccine doses administered, a daily increase of 4,937.

Currently, there are 122 people hospitalized in Utah with the coronavirus.

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