2020 on may 3, state representative phil lyman encouraged people to flout public health orders, writing, "if your governor or your local health department orders you to wear you should absolutely not do it, (unless you want to)." he later falsely suggested that the coronavirus pandemic was a conspiracy to unseat president trump. on may 4, the utah department of health launched the docket app, enabling consumer access to the utah state immunization information system (usiis). on may 5, intermountain healthcare announced that it will begin blood tests to check for antibodies for covid-19 to help add to the state's understanding of where the disease is spreading. they are selecting patients who fit one of three criteria: covid-19 symptoms for more than 14 days and a negative nasal test, people unprotected during exposures to covid-19 patients (mostly caregivers), and people who had an undiagnosed illness similar to covid-19 since december 1. on may 6, university of utah health announced that they will do randomized antibody testing, starting with 200 to 250 tests per day for a total sample of 10,000. both are having arup laboratories process their blood tests. on may 11, herbert signed a bill requiring the governor to give 24-hour notice before declaring a state of emergency. the bill was passed in response to herbert's emergency action to deal with the coronavirus. on may 14, governor herbert announced that most of the state will move from "orange" guidelines to "yellow" guidelines on may 16. the areas remaining in "orange" are the counties of summit, wasatch, and grand and the cities of salt lake city and west valley. on may 20, herbert unveiled the third version of the utah leads together plan. on may 27, the number of cases in the hispanic community surpassed that of the supermajority white population. on may 28, new cases jumped by 215. on may 29, the state had a spike of 343 new cases, the largest one-day rise in cases. june 2020 on june 3, state epidemiologist dunn confirmed a "sharp spike" in cases, the state having seen jumps of over 200 cases seven days in a row. many of the new cases resulted from outbreaks in places of business. no known cases had yet resulted from the recent protests against police violence. the weeks-long trend of elevated infections continued to june 16, with dunn warning that "we are definitely in the acceleration phase." she noted that 78% of new cases were at work sites. on june 17, gov. herbert released the fourth version of his utah leads together plan, focusing on "full-blown economic recovery". dunn warned that "the risk of exposure to covid-19 is higher than ever in utah". on june 20, dunn released a statement saying, "for three straight weeks now our cases have been increasing at a rate that isn't sustainable. we are at risk for overwhelming our hospital capacity, which could result in utahns not getting the medical care they need." on june 22, the same day that the utah department of health announced 444 new cases of covid-19, dunn told utah state government and health officials in a memo that "we are quickly getting to a point where the only viable option to manage spread and deaths will be a complete shutdown." dunn urged the governor to upgrade the condition from 'yellow' and 'green' to 'orange' statewide. on june 25, salt lake city cancelled its july fireworks shows due to the coronavirus. other cities, such as west jordan, ogden, provo, and taylorsville, have cancelled or modified similar fireworks shows. on june 26, researchers from the university of utah found that about 1% of utahns had covid-19 antibodies in may and early june, or more than 3 times the number of confirmed cases at the time. the rate in summit county was 3.9%. july 2020 on july 1, jefferson burton, the acting director of the utah department of health, won the republican primary for state house district 66 in utah county with no other parties fielding candidates. on july 8, the seven-day average of new cases rose to 577 per day. on july 9, herbert set a challenge for utahns to reduce the rolling seven-day average of new cases to below 500 by august 1. at the time, the average was 584 per day. he also ordered all k-12 schools to require masks indoors or on school buses. on july 10, the seven-day average number of new cases rose past 600 per day, to 622. the utah area presidency of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints called upon its members to wear face masks in public, for " common purpose for the blessing and benefit of all." on july 15, people crowded into a public meeting in utah county to push for an exception to statewide mask requirements in schools. the county commissioners were planning to vote on whether to ask the state for a partial exemption, but they abruptly canceled the meeting and postponed the vote because the crowd did not follow social distancing. the next day, herbert suggested that the crowd was "foolish" and had a "mob mentality". on july 25, the seven-day average of new cases was 615 per day. on july 26, 350 new cases were reported in the state, a significant drop over the pioneer day state holiday weekend. on july 30, the state health department released a "covid-19 school manual". it mandated face masks for students and staff and makes many recommendations, such as screening for symptoms, cleaning regularly, opening bus windows, opening room windows after someone has been exposed, and closing a classroom or a school after an outbreak. herbert also announced that the acting director of the state department of health, jefferson burton, would leave udoh and that richard "rich" saunders would become the new acting director. august 2020 on august 1, the seven-day average of new cases was 431, below the target of 500 set by herbert. on august 11, it fell to 354, below the state's new goal of fewer than 400 new cases per day. on august 23, it was 349. on august 28, the salt lake county health department released data showing that the workplaces that had the most workers infected were in manufacturing, retail, construction, transportation, and food and beverage service. september 2020 by september 1, there had been 14 outbreaks in schools since public schools began opening on august 13. on september 4, the seven-day average number of new cases rose again to 411. the number of school outbreaks for the new school year rose to 27. the upward trend in new cases continued in mid-september, driven by an increase in cases among college-aged people in utah county. the seven-day average rose to 487. on september 16, the seven-day average of new cases rose to 585, the highest since peaking at 669 per day on july 22. by september 20, the seven-day average of new cases had risen to 835. on september 22, herbert ordered orange phase guidelines to go into effect in provo and orem. granger high and olympus high reported that in-person classes would be stopped after each school reported 15 active cases on september 23. the closures are recommended, not required, under state health recommendations. not all schools have followed the recommendation. out of eight schools with 15 or more confirmed cases two have continued in person classes. another school in the canyons school district switched to a mix of online and in-person learning after 15 cases were confirmed on september 11, but the school board voted to shut down in person classes after that number increased to 70. on september 24, the seven-day average of new daily cases rose to a record of 916. on september 27, utah had the fourth-highest rate of infection per capita in the united states. on september 28, the seven-day average of new daily cases rose to a record of 1,001. on september 29, u.s. senator mike lee announced that he tested positive for the coronavirus. he had attended amy coney barrett's supreme court nomination ceremony at the rose garden, where others who had attended also tested positive within a week. october 2020 on october 2, a couple hundred people gathered at the provo courthouse to protest mask mandates. on october 7, hospitalizations reached a record high with 226 patients concurrently admitted. the previous high was on july 24. on october 8, the university of utah hospital's intensive care unit was at 95% capacity, and their testing sites remained at capacity. in a news briefing, dr. eddie stenehjem of intermountain healthcare said, "our hospitals are full". the state set a new record high in the seven-day average of 1,114 positive tests per day. the number of patients concurrently admitted reached a record high of 237. the death toll reached 501. the next day, intermountain healthcare said, "all of our facilities are seeing very high volumes". on october 12, a spokesman for the division of emergency management was very concerned that the state's intensive care beds would get over 75% full. on october 13, gov. herbert replaced the state's color-coded guidelines with a new system that rates counties as having high, moderate, or low transmission, depending on its per-capita rate of new cases, the percent of tests that are positive, and statewide hospitalization trends. counties with a high level will have masks required in public indoor settings, as well as outdoors if social distancing isn't possible. local governments can decide whether and how to enforce the rules. counties initially rated as high were salt lake, utah, cache, wasatch, juab, and garfield counties. counties with moderate levels will temporarily have to require masks and limit gatherings until october 29. fifteen counties were initially rated as moderate. the system also replaced detailed industry guidelines with a few high-level guidelines to all businesses. on october 15, hospitals were quickly running out of room for critical-care patients, with cases among older people continuing to rise and flu season beginning. in a news briefing, dr. stenehjem said that the healthcare system has never seen so many patients and has been distributing patients between hospitals. he said that they're getting to opening up overflow icus. dr. michael ott, the director of intermountain medical center said that the situation is not sustainable. the weekly infection rate was at a record high, averaging 1,204 per day. state officials say a large number of infected people are not getting tested. local infection rates reached record-highs in tooele county, central utah, and southeast utah health districts, as well as southwest utah health district where hospital capacity was close to maxing out in june. on october 16, the university of utah hospital icu reached "more than 100% capacity", with doctors and nurses working extra shifts. november 2020 on november 8, governor gary herbert sent a wireless emergency alert to all utah cellphones to "tune into local tv stations around 9:30pm". later in the day, herbert issued a statewide mask mandate, paused extracurricular activities, and asked utahns to limit gatherings to households only. december 2020 on december 15, over ninety health care workers received their first vaccine shots, the first distributed shots in the state. on december 30, 4,670 positive cases were reported. january 2021 on january 8, the utah department of health reported 4,839 new cases, the highest single-day count since the beginning of the pandemic. mostly because of the recent holidays people traveled to gather with family and friends despite top health officials warning not to do so. on january 18, covid-19 vaccines were made available to all people age 70 and above. on jan 28, the utah department of health reported 35 deaths, the most for a single day in utah. february 2021 in the month of february, case and death counts declined drastically due to continued mask wearing, physical distancing, and covid-19 vaccinations being administered. march 2021 on march 1, covid-19 vaccines were made available to all people aged 65 and older. on march 3, the state legislature passed hb294, dubbed the pandemic "endgame" bill, which lifts the statewide mask mandate on april 10, lifts school-based face mask directives on july 1, and sets conditions for the automatic expiration of local health departments' mask requirements. the next day, rep. jon hawkins, who had been hospitalized since january due to covid-19, appeared