April 9, 2020

Salt Lake County Extends COVID-19 Public Health Order to May 1

(SALT LAKE COUNTY)—Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson announced today that the county will extend the expiration of its March 29 Public Health Order from April 13 to May 1, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. Mayor Wilson and Health Executive Director Edwards will sign the extended order by Friday.

The March 29 and extended order: 

• Directs all individuals to stay at home except to engage in essential activities, such as errands for food and medicine or conducting work that cannot be done remotely
• Restricts food service operations to takeout/delivery only
• Closes certain businesses that act as gathering places or involve close contact between people
• Closes children’s playgrounds and prohibits team sports
• Allows most businesses that can practice social distancing to stay open, provided they actively enforce social distancing practices and exclude ill employees from working

“We are seeing the positive effects of these community-wide efforts,” Mayor Wilson said. “Let’s continue to be vigilant in our efforts.”

Health officials urge Salt Lake County residents to continue staying home as much as possible and, when it’s necessary to leave home for essential errands, people should wear a fabric face covering and stay away from residents outside their household.

“We monitor case counts and review modeling multiple times each day,” said Gary Edwards, executive director of Salt Lake County Health Department. “If everyone in the community continues to do their part. The more we do, the earlier we will be able to move to re-opening.”

Edwards cautions that the county will need to lift the public health order gradually to avoid creating the potential for a spike in disease transmission.

“In order to prevent an additional wave of illnesses, we will need to ease the restrictions in phases so we don’t undo the weeks of progress we’ve made.”