Salt Lake County issues 30-day mask order

Salt Lake County Health Department Executive Director Dr. Angela Dunn recommends wearing respirators, like KN95s, for optimal protection. Photo: Markus Winkler

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake County Health Department Executive Director Dr. Angela C. Dunn issued a public health order on Friday requiring people in Salt Lake County, regardless of vaccination status or past COVID-19 infection, to wear masks when indoors (or queuing outdoors) in public.

Dr. Dunn recommends wearing respirators, such as KN95s instead of cloth masks for optimal protection.

The order will take effect at 12:01 am on Saturday, Jan. 8. The order is currently set to run until 5 pm on Feb. 7.

“We desperately need to use every tool available to ensure our hospitals can continue providing excellent healthcare through this surge,” Dr. Dunn said. “We also need to ensure that our essential services have the staff necessary to operate—from law enforcement to plow drivers to schoolteachers. It is my obligation as health officer to take the action I believe has the best chance to prevent unnecessary suffering throughout our community.”

Exemptions to the order include:

• Individuals under two years of age and those with medical conditions, impairments, or disabilities that prevent wearing a mask.
• Individuals engaging in work where they are alone and individuals for whom wearing a mask would create a risk to the individual related to their work as determined by local, state, or federal regulators or workplace safety guidelines.
• Individuals seated at a restaurant or other food/beverage establishment while they are actively eating or drinking.

“As with Salt Lake County mask orders issued earlier in the pandemic, education about the purpose of the order and supplying a mask to individuals in violation will be the primary method of enforcement,” a press release states.

“The purpose of this order is to protect public health and our critical industries’ staffing, not to hold someone criminally liable. Health officials are asking businesses and operators of other public spaces to enforce this order as they do any other social-behavioral expectations that exist for their establishment.”