Utah officials look to education, not force, to uphold COVID-19 health orders
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Video of a crowd gathering at the Salt Lake City Airport sparked outrage online Monday because Utahns have been asked to not gather in groups of more than ten to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The disregard for the social distancing rules prompted officials from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Salt Lake City to announce new limitations on how many people can come to the airport to retrieve missionaries.
It’s the latest in an evolving list of rules, laws and recommendations that state and local officials have implemented to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the weekend, the Utah Department of Health softened a legal ban on gatherings of more than 10 people.
In its initial health order, the department prohibited such gatherings, but now the 10-person limit is just a "recommendation."
Previous prohibitions on dine-in service at restaurants, bars, taverns, and hotels remain in effect.
The Salt Lake County Health Department confirmed to 2News that is has received approximately 50 complaints related to the COVID-19 health orders since they took effect last week.
“Our first tactic is education, so we’ll call that business and make sure they are aware of that public health order. Overall, we have really gotten compliance across the board,” spokesperson Nicholas Rupp told 2News.
Rupp said the department’s staff is busy handling the pandemic and does not need citizens to report gatherings of more than 10 people or businesses that may be violating the health order.
We’re trying not to use our resources by visiting those businesses when we really need to be visiting higher-risk situations ensuring that our healthcare workers are taken care of.
While the state and local health departments have repeatedly encouraged people to voluntarily comply with COVID-19 health orders, the law does leave the door open for criminal prosecution of violators.
“If somebody is flagrantly, continuously, and persistently violating - they are really going against the health concern, against the social order we are trying to preserve to mitigate this,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill told 2News.
Under the Utah Code, a first offense violation of a health order is a class B misdemeanor. Gill said he hopes there will not be a need to use legal action against anyone during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“99% of the people are going to self-regulate because they don’t want to get infected and they don’t want to infect other people,” he said.
Gill said he plans to consider three ‘C’s for potential prosecution of health order violations in Salt Lake County.
- Conspicuous (Is the violation being done in plain view and obviously violating what the health department has ordered?)
- Commercial (Is a person or business making money while violating the health order?)
- Complaints (Is the health department receiving multiple or repeated complaints about a violator?)
Gill assured, however, that there is no current instruction being given to law enforcement to actively look for health code violators.
“Nobody is going to look into your house because you have more than 10 people there,” he said. “We are in a pandemic, there is genuine concern — this is not speculative, and this is not isolated to us — this is something that is happening worldwide.”
Other states – namely Nevada and California – have instructed police and regulatory inspectors to look for businesses that are violating the states’ ‘shelter-in-place’ orders.
Police agencies in Utah who spoke with 2News on background information Monday said they have not been given instructions to actively look for or enforce violations of the state health order.
The ACLU of Utah released the following statement Monday about law enforcement
"The ACLU of Utah will continue to engage in important discussions about the balance of prudent and effective public health protections with the preservation of our inalienable civil liberties. It is encouraging that in promoting social distancing measures, Utah officials are currently stressing education and persuasion over threats of criminal penalties. We will continue to monitor this rapidly developing situation as it unfolds with an eye to protecting all of our rights.”