A teacher wearing a mask instructs her students, also wearing masks and sitting socially distantanced from one another, during class at Antelope Canyon Elementary on Aug 31, 2020. (Doug Flagler, Jordan School District)
SALT LAKE CITY — The chair of the Salt Lake County Council expects that body to overturn a mask mandate for students under age 12 issued by the county health department as soon as Thursday afternoon.
In an interview with Utah’s Morning News on KSL Newsradio, council Chair Steve DeBry said he thinks council members will vote to overturn the mask mandate from Salt Lake County Health Department Executive Director Dr. Angela Dunn when the council meets Thursday afternoon.
“There’s a very small chance that somebody in that age group would contract the virus, and I just don’t think the benefits outweigh the risks and the problems that we’d have trying to mask up the little kids in that age group,” DeBry said.
While young children seem to be less at risk for COVID-19 generally, and for hospitalization and death specifically, their risk is not zero. As of Wednesday, 336 children between the ages of 1 and 14 had been hospitalized in Utah because of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to data available on the state’s coronavirus website.
In announcing the mask mandate for children under age 12 in school, Dunn said she believes in-person learning is best for students, and this is the best way she knows of to protect children who can’t yet get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Under state law, Dunn and the health department can determine the need for a mandate, but elected local and state officials can overrule any mandate.
COVID-19 coronavirus spreads person to person, similar to the common cold and the flu. So, to prevent it from spreading:
Utah’s Coronavirus Information
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Utah Coronavirus Information Line – 1-800-456-7707
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention