FILE: Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall spoke to reporters outside Emerson Elementary School on Sept. 10, 2020. Photo: KSL NewsRadio
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall revealed a letter she’d written to members of the Salt Lake County Council urging them to support masks for schools — if Dr. Angela Dunn deems them necessary.
In the letter, she asked the council members to support Dunn, who heads up the Salt Lake County Health Department, if she recommends a mask requirement for K-12 schools in Salt Lake County.
“A potential for three or four children to be hospitalized with COVID-1 each week if nothing is done,” Mendenhall said, “combined with data showing the correlation between mask use and a reduction in cases is clear and straightforward.”
Mendenhall noted that most counties in Utah, including Salt Lake County, are categorized (using the state’s index) as being in a “high transmission status” related to COVID-19.
“Case numbers continue to surge while vaccinations are stagnating and there is no indication that cases will stop increasing until kids under 12 are eligible for the vaccine,” Mendenhall said.
“Through this lens,” the Mayor’s letter continued, “the danger to our children isn’t in wearing a small, life-saving face covering during school hours.
“The danger is in schools having to close down, yet again, because of a rampant virus, or much worse, our children getting sick, spreading the virus, needing hospital treatment, suffering the unknown long term side effects, or even dying.”
This story will be updated.