SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4 News) — On Thursday morning, Salt Lake City County Mayor Jenny Wilson hosted a weekly COVID-19 meeting and told members of the press that social distancing is working in slowing the spread of the virus.
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She showed the following graphs to demonstrate how social distancing has flattened the curve of the virus’s spread in Salt Lake County.
The first graph shows that as of early April, the county has about 463 cases of coronavirus.
However, the red line indicates that Salt Lake County could have reached 463 cases far earlier, in mid-March, had the county failed to put restrictions in place.
The third and final graph shows that had the county not put restrictions in place, it would have reached the number of cases it currently had at an earlier point. The blue line shows a flattening of the curve in number of cases.
During the meeting, Mayor Wilson called for Gov. Gary Herbert to initiate a mandatory state-wide order to stay home so that the hospital system would not become overburdened with COVID-19 cases.
According to Mayor Wilson, 40 percent of COVID-19 cases in Salt Lake County are people between 21 and 40 years of age. County officials believe this could indicate that young people are not taking social distancing seriously.
Sheriff Rivera said the county’s main approach for enforcing the order is through education, but if the problem continues, they will begin issuing misdemeanors.
Salt Lake County recently set aside $1 million to purchase personal protective equipment for healthcare workers.
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