Plan unveiled to help Utah economy during the coronavirus pandemic
Mar 24, 2020, 6:31 PM | Updated: Mar 25, 2020, 8:57 am
Gov. Gary Herbert talks about “The Utah Leads Together Plan” in response to the COVID-19 crisis during a virtual press conference on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. Zoom.com
SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah economy is feeling effects from the coronavirus outbreak already. There is a plan in place to help the Utah economy during the coronavirus outbreak.
Governor Gary Herbert has unveiled a plan to help businesses and workers during the Coronavirus pandemic in Utah.
The plan relies on Utahns continuing to stay home and practice social distancing to flatten the curve while still supporting the Utah economy.
“This is not my plan, it is our plan,” he said, asking everyone in Utah to read and follow the plan stressing the responsibility of every Utah resident to adhere to current public health regiments in place.
“The Utah Leads Together Plan” has three stages. Governor Herbert said during a virtual news conference that the state is in the “Urgent” phase, meaning bars, restaurants, movie theaters, and entertainment venues will be under the same restrictions they have already been experiencing for weeks.
Non-profits and small businesses will also probably continue to take a hit as Coronavirus cases in Utah go up.
Utah is expected to be under the “Urgent” phase for at least the next eight weeks.
Herbert said they have increased testing, but any restrictions will be based on the number of new Coronavirus cases the state has, as well as the transmission rate.
That’s why he asked people to keep social distancing.
“We are basing our timelines on deep-dive analysis. This is not something we pulled out of the sky…We think this is a realistic timeline you can count on, again, particularly if everybody participates [in social distancing],” Herbert said.
The state is asking businesses who can hire people who are out of work and to make sure employees are teleworking whenever possible.
The plan has also been posted to the state’s Coronavirus website, which gives companies and regular people resources and places to apply for local and federal assistance to help them during the pandemic.
The “Stabilization” and “Recovery” phases, which would both have fewer restrictions on companies and people, will happen as the number of Coronavirus cases goes down.
When asked about President Trump’s plan to have the country opening back up by Easter, the governor said while he believes in miracles, “We think it’s going to take closer to two to four months to have that to happen [in Utah],” Herbert said.
The plan can be found at coronavirus.utah.gov/business.
