Posted by Governor Gary Herbert on Thursday, December 17, 2020
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Dec. 17, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — Gov. Gary Herbert on Thursday announced he will make two changes to COVID-19 restrictions in Utah.
He will be lifting the requirement that public school students must quarantine for two weeks after they share a classroom with someone who is later determined to be infected with COVID-19 if all parties were wearing masks. Only the infected person will be sent home.
Herbert said state data shows that COVID is spread under those “mask on mask” circumstances only about 1% of the time.
In addition, Herbert announced at a second news conference that the state standard for closing schools due to COVID cases will change in some cases.
For schools with more than 1,500 students, they will switch to virtual learning when cases meet 1% of the student population. Previously, the threshold was 15 students.
For schools of fewer than 1,500 students, the threshold will remain at 15 students. And judging by cases in a classroom will apply only to elementary schools.
An experimental program to let students and staffers get COVID tests to remain in school when limits have been met will go statewide.
“Students who test negative can continue in-person school,” Herbert said. “Those who test positive and those refusing to test will transition to at-home learning.”
Lifting late-night alcohol restrictions
Herbert also announced that businesses that sell alcohol again will be allowed to sell it after 10 a.m., reversing a previous restriction.
Herbert said he had met with representatives of the Utah Restaurant Association and with several restaurant and bar owners, who promised that in addition to following required policies — such as physical distancing, sanitizing the premises and requiring masks on staffers and on customers who are not eating — they will enforce a guideline that diners who are eating and thus are maskless must remain stationary and not walk around the premises.
“They are ready to require mask wearing at all times except when people are actively eating or drinking, and also, along with that, to say you have to be stationary when you’re eating or drinking,” Herbert said at a Thursday morning news conference. “Now that’s a protocol we find in many places around the country.
“So you cannot just have a glass in your hand and walk around the facility there. That would increase risk. If you’re going to drink and eat, you have to be stationary while you do it.”
“With those commitments in place, we’re ready to announce today that, effective tomorrow, that restriction of alcohol sales after 10 o’clock will be lifted.”
To view the morning news conference, click the link above.
