Ending COVID Restrictions

This recent week we had some interesting news that the mask mandate in Utah will be lifted. We have heard several sides of the story. People saying that it won’t end, others are excited about the lifting of the mask mandate.

We have heard that the mask mandate is going to be lifted. Thoughts of it was going to be at least another year before the release of the mandate. It has been determined that the mask mandate will end on April 10, 2021 statewide. From 2KUTV, “Though the governor expects the vaccine to be available to all Utahns by April 1, he says not everyone will be vaccinated by the time the mask mandate would be lifted.” They are saying that the vaccine has a 95% success rate by the second dose. They are hoping that when the vaccine hopefully becomes available to everyone by April 1 then everyone can get both doses by the end of the mask mandate. Just because they are ending the mandate in April schools are still required to wear them until July 1. That doesn’t make sense because schools are out in the summertime in May. Talking to Mr. Keech the Assistant Principal at Mountain View said, “The mask mandate release was figured out earlier than the statewide mandate release.” He later showed the actual law that showed that it has always been there. Later he talked about how it was going to be harder for the students in summer school to keep their masks on because they don’t have to wear it around the community and at work. Even though the release is statewide it does have some exceptions.

The mandate might end in April, but businesses intend to keep wearing masks. From 2KUTV, “Not everyone in the store has been vaccinated, so we just want to make sure our employees are safe.” Businesses want to keep their employees safe because not all the guests that come into the store have the vaccine. That is not saying that they are still not going to release that mandate in some stores.