Utah’s original state of emergency declaration for coronavirus expired this week. During his press conference on Thursday, Gov. Gary Herbert announced a new emergency declaration will be going into place.
“Until we get a vaccine, we'll probably have that kind of a situation or certainly get into more normal opportunities. We don't have to have quite the knee jerk reaction that we've had in the past and response time does lengthen out. But we certainly don't want to risk losing help from the federal government by not having an emergency declaration,” Herbert said.
According to Herbert, the declaration is designed to help the governor make quick decisions in response to emergencies.
Although declarations are typically in place for 30 days, in epidemic or pandemic situations the governor said it’s not unusual for these declarations to last longer. This new state of emergency declaration will last another 30 days and Herbert said he does not know if it will be extended.
One reason for continuing the state of emergency Herbert said is it helps Utah receive federal funding related to the crisis.
“All states in America today have an emergency declaration in place including the federal government," said Herbert. "So if we were not to do this, we would be the only state of the 50 that would not have an emergency declaration in place for our state during this pandemic.”
Herbert saidhe will to continue to work with the legislative leaders in regards to the statue details moving forward.
