CDC: Masks should be worn in all but one Utah county

Salt Lake City, Utah – According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Nearly every county in Utah is marked as having a high level of community transmission of COVID-19. Utah’s 28 counties falling in the high or substantial transmission category is an increase over last week.

Within the latest guidelines, the CDC encourages anyone living in areas of “substantial and high” virus transmission to wear a mask inside.

The vast majority of counties across the U.S. are seeing substantial or high COVID-19 transmission, according to the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker,. States from Iowa south to Louisiana, east to South Carolina, and north to Pennsylvania are almost entirely red – ‘high’ COVID-19 transmission – with a few orange counties – ‘substantial’ transmission. The same goes for states across the west, with Nebraska being the only exception.

Of Utah’s 29 counties, just two are not in the ‘high’ categories – Rich and Morgan. In the previous week, Rich county was in the substantial category, identified with the color orange, where it remains this week. Emery County has moved from moderate to high while Daggett moved from low to high. Morgan has moved from high to substantial.

Based on the latest CDC guidance, this means everyone, vaccinated or not, should be wearing a mask when indoors in all but one county.

As of Aug. 24, 59.8% of Utahns 12-years-old and older are fully vaccinated against the virus. The vaccine is not currently available for kids 11 and under.