Wasatch County has been moved to the low risk, yellow phase effective immediately.
Thursday evening Wasatch County Health Department announced the county has been moved from the orange moderate risk phase to the yellow low risk phase.
Wasatch County stayed in the yellow phase six days longer than most of the state.
Wasatch County Health Director Randall Probst explained Wednesday the decision was made by the governor’s office based on monitored data of the virus.
At the Wednesday meeting Probst says most businesses will continue to operate in yellow the same way they are expected to in orange. He did highlight three main differences of particular interest to those that had sent complaints to the council.
“Team sports is allowed in yellow,” Probst continued. “The playgrounds in the parks open again. The parents are directed for still maintaining social distancing. The third thing that changes, our larger swimming pools have been open only to lap swimming. Under the yellow guidelines, that changes a little bit. Now their capacity for a pool is determined by the amount of deck space that they have where they can maintain social distancing, and that’s spelled out in the guidelines.”
Although schools will remain closed through the end of the academic year, Probst adds that the yellow guideline allows schools to open which could impact summer school and drivers ed courses in the coming months.
Part of the delay to move the Wasatch Back to the more moderate phase is the short amount of time they’ve been in the orange phase.
“We’ve only been on orange for a little over two weeks,” Probst explained. “As we know, this virus has a two-week incubation period, so it takes two weeks to really know what impact any of these things are having on the spread of the virus.”
Probst shared that on Wednesday afternoon of the 217 confirmed cases in the county, three were in the hospital. 146 of the 217 have recovered, meaning there were 71 active cases on Wednesday.
Probst also echoed the governors concern for the highly vulnerable and minority populations.
“Even though a lot of people aren’t happy about being encouraged to wear masks, that does help to protect,” Probst said. “It helps protect the vulnerable, and it really does help us move forward. Dr. Dunn’s comments she strongly encouraged us again to stay home when you’re sick, wear masks when you’re out in public and maintain proper social distancing. If those that are healthy are willing to do that and protect the vulnerable, we help with this whole thing along and the economic recovery much faster.”
Wasatch County citizens were also encouraged to familiarize themselves with newly released Utah Leads Together 3.0 plan for economic recovery.
Those that are high risk for COVID-19 and are struggling to meet basic needs can call the high-risk hotline 877-424-4640. More info can be found here.
