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SALT LAKE CITY — At a news conference late Thursday morning, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert announced that most of the state will move from the "orange," moderate-risk phase it entered two weeks ago to the "yellow," low-risk phase.
But there will be exceptions. Grand, Summit and Wasatch counties will remain entirely at orange, as will Salt Lake City and West Valley City.
Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson said in a statement Thursday the county had applied to the state to remain at moderate risk, but was denied.
"We are encouraged that Salt Lake City and West Valley City — who have each experienced a higher positive case rate — will receive exemptions and will continue to operate under the Orange guidelines," Wilson said in the written statement. "But we also understand that the virus doesn't recognize municipal boundaries and therefore, countywide caution and prudence will be essential for success."
Wilson said she recognizes that "progress is being made" in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, but believes that "more time is needed to assess the impacts of phased reopening."
While some county businesses opened promptly on May 1, many didn't resume operations until May 4, Wilson argued, giving them only 10 days of moderate risk operation.
"The county had requested an additional 10 days to analyze trends to be truly confident in the stabilization in the spread of COVID-19," she said.
The color-coded risk phases sparking the disagreement refer to the Utah Leads Together 2.0 plan, an April document that outlined Utah's economic reopening and the restrictions that would be imposed in an effort to reopen more safely.
Utah officials have long indicated that different portions of the state might require different risk levels during portions of the recovery. Some counties had already requested permission to move to lower risk before the rest of the state.
Salt Lake County, the state's most populated, has also seen the highest number of cases (though not the highest per-capita infection rates). As of Thursday, 3,604 Salt Lake County residents had at some point tested positive for COVID-19; 51 had died from the disease, accounting for nearly 70% of Utah's coronavirus-related deaths.
However, small area case data from the Utah Department of Health shows western Salt Lake City and West Valley City have seen much higher case rates than the southern portion of the county.
Wilson and Salt Lake County Health Department executive director Gary Edwards requested permission to remain at orange risk from retired Maj. Gen. Jefferson Burton, head of the Utah Coronavirus Task Force, in a May 11 letter.
"Salt Lake County’s active positive case rate is over four times the state’s rate, and while the state’s active positive case rate appears to be gradually declining, the county’s rate remains static," they wrote. They also said the county has "identified numerous hotspots aligned with communities that include diverse and underserved populations."
Statewide, Hispanics and Latinos account for just over 14% of the population and 38% percent of coronavirus cases, according to the Utah Department of Health.
On Twitter, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said westside zip codes 84116 and 84104 "have continuously shown some of the highest COVID-19 numbers in the state."
Though @GovHerbert is relaxing restrictions in most areas of the state to ‘yellow,’ #slc’s higher numbers of COVID-19 warrant a continuation of the ‘orange’ phase.
— SLC Mayor Erin Mendenhall (@slcmayor) May 14, 2020
SLC zip codes 84116 and 84104 have continuously shown some of the highest COVID-19 numbers in the state. #utpol
Burton said at the Thursday news conference that counties and municipalities work with their local health departments to submit variance requests to his office.
"So what I would say is, if those variances aren't approved then no, they won't be allowed to stay at a higher level," Burton said. "But if they are approved, then, of course, they will. I would say there are a couple of cases where they are right now, and we're monitoring those and will make recommendations for changes on a weekly basis — again, based on the data."
Mendenhall said she's looking for two consecutive weeks of declining positive cases, as recommended by infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, before transitioning Salt Lake City to the low-risk phase.
She said it's too early to know how the May 1 shift to orange risk will impact case counts in the city, and encouraged residents to continue limiting trips, wearing masks and social distancing.
Moving to yellow risk will mean an increase of public group size limits from 20 to 50, further business opening and an OK for schools to resume this fall; however, social distancing guidelines and mask use will still be encouraged.
"We value collaboration with the state, surrounding counties and cities and hope we can work together to maintain the success we’ve seen and continue to look out for the safety of our residents," Wilson said in her statement.
