of coronavirus patients. smith's grocery stores reported a surge in demand for essential items. the utah food industry association released a statement to discourage hoarding. the state government warned that price gouging is illegal during a state of emergency. us senator mitt romney called for every worker to receive $1,000 from the government. a bill to send $1,200 to most americans was introduced, debated, passed, and signed into law within two weeks. on march 17, the lds church ordered all nonnative missionaries removed from the philippines. public businesses were ordered closed in southeastern counties covering moab where many travelers were expected. westminster college postponed its commencement ceremonies. the state issued a public health order prohibiting dine-in service in restaurants for two weeks and gatherings of more than 10 individuals, with an exception for grocery stores. community spread was confirmed in utah county. on march 18, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake took down the coronavirus hotline, and a temporary hotline was installed. the earthquake also disrupted covid-19 testing. the dominion energy gas utility stopped disconnections for nonpayment. all public universities and colleges postponed their commencement ceremonies. community spread was confirmed in davis county. ben mcadams, representative for utah's 4th congressional district, tested positive for covid-19. utah hospitals set up drive-through testing stations. on march 19, city creek center announced that it would close, and salt lake county banned gatherings of more than 10 people for 30 days. on march 20, the state announced that it intended to postpone the deadline for filing state taxes. university health announced that it will offer drive-up assessments; it had already set up drive-up testing stations. on march 22, the first fatality in utah occurred. the victim was a man in his 60s who had tested positive the previous day and had a history of respiratory difficulties. us airman providing curbside service at hill air force base shopping center during the coronavirus pandemic, march 23, 2020 on march 23, hundreds of people gathered in a large crowd at the salt lake city international airport to welcome 1,600 returning missionaries, prompting criticism from the state government. testing labs announced that anyone with symptoms would be allowed to be tested. previously, testing was restricted to those who had contact with known covid-19 patients or who traveled to areas with widespread infection. on march 24, the state ordered that all elective surgeries and procedures shall be postponed. governor herbert unveiled a three-phase, nine-month plan called "utah leads together". the three phases progress from urgent short-term steps, to economic stabilization, and to full economic recovery. salt lake city police reported a 30% increase in domestic violence calls. the department of environmental quality warned residents not to flush toilet paper substitutes. state tax commissioner john valentine announced that the utah tax commission would meet on the 26th to extend the deadlines for both payment and filing of state income taxes to july 15 in order to match up with the federal government's extension. salt lake county councilman arlyn bradshaw tested positive for the virus after showing symptoms for several days, which he later said was a case of community spread. glass shields such as these were installed to protect employees and customers at grocery store checkout counters. on march 25, many grocery store chains installed glass shields at checkout counters to protect employees and customers. navajo nation president jonathan nez issued a stay-at-home order for all residents of navajo nation, which overlaps utah. summit county issued a stay-at-home order, requiring that "all individuals currently living within summit county, utah are ordered to stay at their place of residence" effective march 27 to may 1 inclusive, but "may leave their residences only for 'essential activities'..." (defined in the order). community spread was confirmed in washington county. on march 27, governor herbert issued a directive for utahns to voluntarily begin staying at home, and salt lake city mayor erin mendenhall signed a proclamation directing all people living in the city to stay at home except for essential travel. on march 28, uintah county announced its first case in a man who contracted the virus through community spread after traveling to the wasatch front, later reported to be salt lake county. salt lake county also said that it was tracking more than 70 "presumed positive" cases that are not tallied in the county's official count of 221 cases. the state health department said it doesn't track presumed positive cases because the cdc doesn't have a uniform definition for how to count these cases, and so the criteria varies between health departments. on march 29, salt lake county mayor jenny wilson issued a public health order directing all individuals present within the county to stay safe at home or at their place of residence, except to engage in essential activities and to work to provide essential business, infrastructure, and/or government services. the order superseded a similar order issued by salt lake city, and mayor mendenhall repealed her order and enacted a proclamation with a less general scope. former utah house speaker bob garff dies of the coronavirus. the state health department said that there is no exact and up-to-date count of icu beds in utah, and that there were about 600 ventilators in 2018. on march 30, the university of washington released a model projecting that utah hospital icu beds would soon be overwhelmed and the number of deaths would rise sharply, even assuming the continuation of strong social distancing and other measures. the model is updated from day to day. signs and markings enforce social distancing at a utah clinic during the coronavirus pandemic, march 31, 2020. on march 31, herbert appointed jefferson burton, the former head of the utah national guard, to head day-to-day operations at the utah department of health, reassigning the executive director, physician joseph k. miner, to other duties for personal health reasons. april 2020 on april 1, governor herbert issued an executive order suspending enforcement of evictions until may 15 for residential tenants who were current on payments as of march 31 and suffered loss of job or wages. on april 3, governor herbert announced that zion national park was closing indefinitely. visitors were required to leave the park by the end of the day and no new visitors would be permitted to enter. on april 4, a woman died after contracting covid-19 at pine creek rehabilitation and nursing in salt lake city, the first to contract the virus in a nursing home. she had tested positive on march 27. at least six patients and two staffers tested positive. on april 5, it was confirmed that the nursing home had the first case of community spread at a utah nursing home. sewing handmade cloth face masks during the coronavirus pandemic in utah, april 8, 2020 on april 8, gov. herbert said that adults driving into utah or arriving at salt lake international airport will be ordered to sign a travel declaration within three hours that lists where they have traveled, if they have had symptoms, and if they have been tested. drivers receive a wireless emergency alert as they drive into utah directing them to an online form. the order went into effect on april 10, in advance of easter weekend, and extends to may 1. april 12, arup laboratories announced that they have begun antibody testing in utah. as of april 13, the death toll in utah stood at 18. after cellphone alerts were sent to the wrong people, utah switched to using highway signs to inform drivers of the travel declaration. salt lake county also sent out a cellphone alert after hearing that a majority of people were not being informed of the stay-at-home order. harmons grocery stores switched to one-way aisles. on april 14, the state released covid-19 statistics on race and ethnicity, revealing that the pandemic is spreading faster among communities of color, especially among latinos and pacific islanders. on april 17, governor herbert announced a color-coded system of guidelines for people to follow, with the state starting at high-risk (red). it is included in version 2 of the utah leads together plan. salt lake county issued a health order allowing restaurants to let people inside to order food so long as workers wear face coverings. the order encourages people to wear a mask in places of public accommodation, such as grocery stores, and whenever social distancing is not possible. a man was arrested for terroristic threats and harassment after calling the salt lake city mayor's office and saying "the police can't stop me" if mayor mendenhall doesn't open up the city. he said a civil war is coming and that mendenhall will be forcibly removed from office. according to police, he posted on facebook, "bring your guns, the civil war starts saturday ". on april 18, close to 1,000 people came to the city hall to protest the city's coronavirus restrictions, with one speaker saying that the virus was created in a united states lab. the crowd marched from the city hall to the state capitol. on april 19, jefferson burton, whom gov. herbert appointed to head the utah department of health, won a spot in the republican primary for the state house seat vacated by rep. mike mckell, who won nomination for the senate seat vacated by sen. deidre henderson when she became the running mate of gubernatorial candidate lt. gov. spencer cox, whom gov. herbert appointed to head the state's coronavirus task force. on april 22, the state announced that it would track residents' movements through a digital contact tracing mobile app called healthy together. the governor said the app could assist with contact tracing efforts by using bluetooth and geolocation to track down a users contacts when they are diagnosed with covid-19. the governor stated that using the app was voluntary and all collected data shared with public health workers would be deleted after 30 days. on april 23, records surfaced revealing that the state's purchasing division had on march 31 committed to pay $800,000 to meds in motion, a pharmacy chain owned by dan richards, for an order of 20,000 doses of the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. the legislature was considering setting aside a total of $8 million for a drug stockpile, with officials saying that their idea is procure the medicine for 200,000 coronavirus patients and distribute it to drugstores throughout the state. senate president stuart adams participated in talks about buying it from richards' company. on april 24, governor herbert said he has questions about how the purchase came about and that the situation was under legal review. noting that the order had not yet been delivered, he said "that'd be nice if they just said, you know, we had a miscommunication here and we're apologizing and here's your money back." he also said that the state would not be ordering any more malaria drugs after the food and drug administration (fda) cautioned against administering the medication for coronavirus to patients outside of a hospital or clinical trial. a review of medical literature, case reports, and data from the american association of poison control centers showed that some coronavirus patients are experiencing serious heart rhythm problems after taking the malaria drugs. by april 26, the wearing of face masks had become increasingly common, with 42% of grocery store patrons in the salt lake valley found to be wearing them. on april 28, the governor's office announced that it was using cares act funds, in a public-private partnership, to produce 2 million fabric masks in utah, offering to mail a free mask to every utahn who submitted a request. on april 29, the state announced that it will move from "red" guidelines to "orange" guidelines on may 1. on april 29, salt lake county issued a new health order intended to take effect on may 1 to gradually reopen business with social distancing requirements, largely mirroring governor herbert's plan to move to the "moderate risk" (orange) guidelines of the phased guidelines. six feet of distance between household groups is the standard guideline. restaurants will be allowed to reopen dining but not exceed 50% capacity. hair salons may reopen, but face masks are required for employees. gyms, movie theaters, and sports venues may reopen with 10 feet of distance between groups. gatherings of 20 or fewer are allowed. may