Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, declared a new state of emergency and issued a statewide mask mandate on Sunday amid a recent surge in coronavirus cases.
The mask mandate was a step the governor had resisted for months, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. It comes after Utah saw a total of 16,111 new cases and 46 deaths from the virus over the past seven days. "Due to the alarming rate of COVID infections within our state, tonight I issued a new state of emergency with several critical changes to our response," Herbert said. "These changes are not shutting down our economy, but are absolutely necessary to save lives and hospital capacity." Utah Gov.