Utah Mask Mandate: Senate Speaker Says Mandates Won’t Return

Now that the dominant delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is considered as contagious as chickenpox, spread as easily by those who are fully vaccinated as by those who are not, will Utah follow the government’s lead? federal government and will take additional measures to control the increase in account cases?

Not yet, Utah Senate Speaker Stuart Adams, R-Layton said on Friday shortly before the Utah Department of Health reported 1,211 new cases of COVID-19 in the state. , even more than the previous day’s total, marking the highest number of cases since mid-February. .

Adams questioned the effectiveness of President Joe Biden’s new mandate that all federal employees as well as members of the military must either be fully immunized against the virus or undergo regular testing and face harsh conditions. work restrictions.

“I am a big supporter of the vaccine. I’m not a big fan of mandates. I think sometimes there’s more hindsight on a mandate than positive reception, ”he said, adding that“ we just don’t want to push people away, push them into a corner where they won’t receive the vaccine. “

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

The Senate Speaker also rejected Biden’s pressure for state and local governments to offer residents $ 100 as an incentive to get the vaccine. Although Gov. Spencer Cox has expressed enthusiasm for the vaccine incentives, leaders in the GOP-controlled state legislature have shown little interest.

The incentive offered by Biden, which he says has been used by a chain of grocery stores to increase employee vaccinations from 50% to 75%, is no exception. Adams said legislative leaders have watched the incentives now offered by most other states, but their success in increasing immunization rates has been limited.

“The $ 100, I’m just not sure that makes a big difference,” he said. “This variation is something that evolves quickly, and I think we are doing everything we can to try to manage it. But hopefully people will go ahead and get vaccinated regardless of a warrant or a bounty. “

The governor did not comment on the Biden administration’s announcement, made on Thursday. Previously, Cox had rejected the reimposition of a statewide mask warrant or other restrictions, saying “it won’t make any difference. This will not be the case. We don’t do that.

There are no plans for a special legislative session to deal with the pandemic, Adams said.

Because state lawmakers earlier this year limited the powers of other government entities to impose virus-related restrictions, he said the requirement for masks in public schools was out of the question. table with other issues, at least until the start of the 2022 session in January. But Adams said that could change if Utah’s situation continues to worsen.

“We can do more”

Utah House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, said lawmakers must take action now to slow the spread of COVID-19, including allowing school districts to decide whether masks should be mandatory in light of a new recommendation from the federal government. Centers for Disaster Control and Prevention.

The CDC said this week that all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools should wear masks, regardless of their immunization status. Dr Angela Dunn, chief of the Salt Lake County health department, had previously said children too young to be vaccinated against COVID-19 because they are under 12 should wear masks at school.

But Dunn, who had helped lead Utah’s coronavirus response as a state epidemiologist before stepping down last spring to take the county post, said any attempt to make masks mandatory early in the new school year “is really futile” due to legislative opposition.

“We can do a lot more,” King said, calling it “a mistake” for lawmakers to have limited the powers of other entities to respond to the virus. He said it “sounded like the presumption to say we know better” than public health experts advising state and local authorities.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Dr Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare, the region’s largest healthcare provider, told reporters at a virtual press conference that he was concerned about the “worrying trend” that fills hospital beds.

The CDC also recommended this week that all Americans living in COVID-19 hotspots wear masks indoors in public even if they are fully vaccinated. The delta variant is considered to be more likely to cause breakthrough cases in people who have received vaccines that may be less severe but still stimulate the spread of the virus.

Stenehjem said he and his family wore masks, avoiding large gatherings and testing for the virus.

He said when the Utahns did the same last fall, the state saw few, if any, severe cases of the flu or RSV, the respiratory syncytial virus that can hit young children hard. Stenehjem said there have already been a few cases of RSV and more are expected this fall without further masking and social distancing.

When it comes to getting more Utahns vaccinated against COVID-19, the doctor pointed out that incentives and warrants have been used successfully for flu shots. Such “carrot and stick” approaches, he said, “are strategies that work. They increase the number of people vaccinated in a group.

Utah’s latest COVID-19 numbers

Utah has now had a total of 432,467 positive cases of the virus with the 1,211 new cases reported on Friday. More than 3 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the state, a daily increase of 7,389, and just over 46% of all Utahns are now fully vaccinated, meaning two or more weeks have passed since their last dose.

The seven-day moving average for positive tests is 755 per day, and 7,589 people have been tested and 12,646 tests performed since Thursday. The seven-day moving average for the percentage of positivity is 10.4% when all results are included and 14.7% when multiple tests performed by an individual are excluded.

Currently, 351 people are hospitalized in Utah with COVID-19, and the state’s death toll is 2,451 with an additional death reported Friday, a Salt Lake County woman between 65 and 84 who did not was not hospitalized at the time of her death.