UPDATE 5/21/2020: Wasatch and Summit counties moved to ‘yellow/low risk’ phase in time for Memorial Day weekend but at least one Summit County restaurant owner plans to keep doing take out only.
PARK CITY (ABC4 News) – Starting one minute after midnight Friday, all Summit County’s 42,000 residents are supposed to remain inside their homes until at least May 1st, possibly longer.
Summit County joins the Navajo Nation area of southern San Juan County as the only areas of Utah under this type of lockdown.
Under the Summit County order, the only businesses open will be:
• Grocery and convenience stores
• Restaurants (drive thru & takeout)
• Banks
• Post offices
• Hardware stores
Residents can only venture out for the following essential services:
• Healthcare
• Plumbers, electricians, auto repair
• Farming
• Transportation services
“I think everyone is still super surprised,” art gallery owner Colby Larsen said. “They’re shocked. I don’t think people realize how bad it is. I know that this time next week the hospitals are going to be completely packed. They’re going to be over capacity.”
Larsen’s five art galleries on Park City’s Main Street will be closed and his employees will be sequestered at home, as will the Weathers family.
“We’ve already been living as if we had a shelter in place order,” Robert Weathers told ABC4 New. “Going out only for essentials anyway so I think that we were prepared. It’s just a little bit different when somebody tells you what you have to do versus precautions that you’re taking on your own.”
So will the entire state soon to follow Summit County’s lead with this step? On Tuesday ABC4 asked Governor Gary Herbert about a statewide stay at home order and he said we’re not to that point yet.
“We want to protect the health and welfare of the people yet we want to make sure the economy doesn’t completely tank either so they’re both joined together,” Governor Herbert said. “We’ll be reviewing our restrictions we have in place today. We’ll be doing that ongoing. There may be some additional issues we want to talk about in the upcoming days or week.”
21 states including neighboring Colorado, Idaho and New Mexico are already under mandatory stay at home orders, a total of more than 200 million people nationwide.
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