SALT LAKE CITY – The statewide mask mandate will be suspended until April 10 under a bill that was approved by the Utah State Legislature in the closing hours of the 2021 session.
The project – dubbed by its sponsor “COVID-19 endgame” – sets metrics to lift health restrictions. It was carefully negotiated between the legislature, the Utah Department of Health and Governor Spencer Cox.
In an interview with FOX 13 on Friday night, Governor Cox said he would be willing to sign it.
“It is much better than it was. The original version of the project had the mandate ending immediately. It was a big push for us,” he said. “Look, we are vaccinating 25,000 people every day. We want to overcome the most vulnerable, we will be with the most vulnerable by April 10, so we feel much better about the bill ”.
On Thursday, the governor previously indicated that he was concerned about the ‘final’ bill with Utah still in the pandemic.
House Bill 294The final version of the said that other restrictions may begin to be loosened once Utah reaches 1.63 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, the 14-day case rate is less than 191 per 100,000 and the ICU hospitalization rate of the state is less than 15% in an average of seven days.
The mask’s mandate would be revoked on April 10. However, the bill now allows the mandate to remain for meetings with crowds over 50. County governments could also adopt their own mask mandates. The project also preserves some health restrictions for K-12 schools and does not prevent companies from requiring them.
But all public health orders would end on July 1.
The Chamber voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill (while rejecting other efforts to suspend the mandate immediately) It was the Republican leaders of the Senate who indicated he was uneasy about the bill and questioned its need, as Utah was doing well with the vaccine adoption.
“We don’t legislate our path to the pandemic,” said Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, who later added, “I am not in favor of trying to legislate to get out of this.”
But on Friday night, they showed up and supported the bill.
Senate minority Whip Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City raised concerns about the bill, pointing out that the pandemic is not over.
“We are certainly going to make decisions based on science,” she said.
Senator Derrin Owens, R-Fountain Green, outlined the bill’s measures and negotiations between the governor and the health department.
“It is really who would have thought, when we were in the middle of this, that we were able to offer a bill that shows how we can go out and provide an end to that,” he said.
When Utah first entered the pandemic, then Governor Gary Herbert was reluctant to issue a mask mandate, but allowed the counties to do so with their permission. He issued a statewide mandate in November, when the COVID-19 cases emerged. Governor Cox kept the mandate in place and argued in favor of it.
But lawmakers have come under increasing pressure to loosen restrictions, especially as more people are vaccinated. They pointed out that they were hit by constituent communications, many of whom complained that the masks were an attack on their personal liberties.
It was a year ago on Saturday that Governor Herbert issued his first state of emergency for the new coronavirus.