Governor Gary Herbert announced on September 10 that Carbon County would be allowed to move into the green phase of the state’s COVID-19 restriction levels. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Southeastern Utah Health Department’s Health Director, Brady Bradford to talk about this latest update.

“So what it means is now there are really no longer imposed restrictions from the state or local health department on any businesses. It doesn’t mean that every business is going to go back to normal right now. We have schools where our children are wearing masks, we have certain businesses where they’re required and there maybe good reasons for them to keep that in place so that they can continue operating as they want to,” said Bradford. This does mean that those restaurants/businesses that have had limitations can now operate on a more normal level.

All schools still will have to comply with the mask mandate imposed by the state. “The same applies to our high schools the Governor put in an order for mask use at least until December 31, that still remains effective. While we are in a good place and happy to entertain some more ideas and open up some additional businesses we certainly need to be respectful of those institutions where they are answering to either a high power or feel the need to maintain some of the social distancing and face-covering use we’ve looked at,” said Bradford. This would be the case with USU-Eastern having to comply with the restrictions/requirements from their Logan campus.

Although the green phase means no restrictions by the state or local health department individuals should still police themselves. “We do still need to analyze where we’re going, what we’re doing and try to maintain some distances in maybe some of those more crowded situations, wash our hands more. One of the most important lessons we’ve learned now in the last couple of weeks, particularly since the start of school is if you’re sick, stay home,” said Bradford. Those individuals in the high-risk categories should continue to take precautions as they have been.

Bradford finished by thanking the community, “I want to applaud the people of the area, I know we deal with some uncomfortable situations where we’re putting masks on when we don’t want to, but really we know that it works to prevent spread, respect each other. We are in a good place; we want to stay there and it’s up to the good people of Carbon and Emery Counties to do that.”