County to request downgrade to Green threat level

Cache County officials are ready to request that the local coronavirus threat level be downgraded to Green/Minimal status.

CACHE COUNTY – County officials here are ready to officially request that Cache County’s COVID-19 threat level be reduced from Yellow/Low level to Green/Minimal status.

At their meeting Tuesday, County Executive Craig Buttars told members of the county council that he had drafted a letter to Gov. Gary Herbert requesting that threat level reduction.

“Given our declining and low number of positive (COVID-19) cases here in Cache County, the low counts in our (health) district and our citizens’ attention to following precautionary protocols,” Buttars wrote, “we believe there is sufficient reason and justification for our county to be moved to Green status.”

The letter will be signed by Buttars and Karl B. Ward, the chairman of the Cache County Council. It will be forwarded through the Bear River Health Department to officials on the state’s COVID-19 Task Force for review.

The members of the county council voted in favor of a threat-level downgrade on June 9, but a formal request was never forwarded to state officials at that time. That vote was closely followed by a sharp spike in local COVID-19 cases due to an outbreak among workers at the JBS meat-packing plant in Hyrum.

“The timing was just wrong back then,” Buttars explained.

Cache County’s status with regard to the coronavirus is more positive now. On Tuesday, the Bear River Health Department reported only 11 new positive cases, eight in Cache County and three in Box Elder County.

Of 2,054 individuals in Cache County that tested positive for COVID-19 since mid-March, only three are currently hospitalized.

“We credit the declining case numbers to our great citizens and our vigilant health department,” Buttars added in his letter to Herbert. “Residents in our county have made the effort to physically distance, wash their hands frequently and voluntarily wear face coverings.

“Our Bear River Health Department has worked diligently and quickly to complete contact tracing when needed. We are extremely grateful for state support of our health department in these efforts.”

There are four coronavirus threat levels under Herbert’s “Utah Leads Together” pandemic response plan, scaled according to the risk of being infected with COVID-19. They are Red/High, Orange/Moderate, Yellow/Low and Green/Minimal threat levels.

About a third of Utah’s 29 counties are already under a Green/Minimal threat level for the coronavirus. They are primarily rural areas with relatively low populations, including Beaver, Daggett, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Kane, Millard, Piute, Uintah and Wayne counties.

Cache County is one of 19 counties still under a Yellow/Low threat level. They include major population centers like Davis, Salt Lake, Utah, Washington and Weber counties.

Only Salt Lake City is still under an Orange/Moderate threat level.

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13 Comments

  • Weston Allen August 26, 2020 at 8:43 am Reply

    Excellent, with our case numbers so low make perfect sense.

  • EC August 26, 2020 at 10:58 am Reply

    AWESOME…GREAT… but the part in the ‘LETTER’ that says we as a community were “voluntarily wear(ing) face coverings” IS A LIE!!!
    LOOK AT OUR SCHOOL—-Ridgeline High School has ONE WAY HALLS, they REQUIRE the children SCAN where they sit, they are unlawfully taking pictures of where our children sit in class, ALL TO TRACE THEM.
    THERE are STUPID SIGNS everywhere in the stadium, OUTSIDE?! Not only do you stay 6 ft away from people but you also are REQUIRED to wear a mask? CDC says 1 or the other NOT BOTH and NOT required OUTSIDE, DOES ANYONE READ?
    My daughter now has a bladder infection after 2 days of having to wait the entire day to use the restroom because you can only have 6 people enter a bathroom at a time, and with ONE way halls, getting to the bathroom is like a MAZE.
    Just got an email stating there are Limited tickets to all school events and they have to know exactly WHO is coming into the stadium, so they can TRACK US?…..OH and you HAVE to wear a mask.
    This is as stupid as people wearing masks in their cars and while JOGGING!
    THE principal at RIDGELINE HIGH SCHOOL has gone OVERBOARD and all her new POWER has got her MASK NAZI’s telling children WHAT kind of mask is ok, and where to walk, and constantly demanding “KEEP THE MASK OVER YOUR NOSE”, even though that child may feel light headed, or have asthma.
    The supreme court ruled “(We) must also be vigilant against abuses of public health powers. To do that (we) must ask what is reasonable, look at the public health evidence, and be attuned to the pre-textual or abuse of power.” They must have a picture of The RHS Principal, because she is ABUSING her power, and I feel we as parents need to take it away!
    UN-MASK our CHILDREN CACHE COUNTY!
    TAKE BACK your LIVES AND YOUR LIBERTY!
    REQUIRE THAT THE CITY GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO THINK FOR YOURSELF!
    If you WANT to wear a mask- I won’t look at you funny or rudely or rip it off. I won’t treat YOU like I’ve been treated.
    DO THE RIGHT THING for your children and our grandchildren.
    WHERE will the power grab stop?
    THIS is not a NEW NORMAL–this is COMMUNISM!
    Where’s the emergency to compromise the mental, emotional and physical health of our children?
    THERE IS NONE!
    AND the Bear RIver Health Dept. isn’t telling you those stats.

    The legality of mask requirements is up for debate, and only time will tell what damage the wearing of cloth masks, 8 hours a day, has done. AND THEN you will see, the lawyers will be hungry for the thousands of lawsuits that will begin.

    Oh, VERY IMPORTANT–the reason “Only Salt Lake City is still under an Orange/Moderate threat level”..you guessed it DEAMONcrat as MAYOR!!

    THE numbers have NEVER added up….and someone told me that I should wear a mask to be charitable….REALLY? When was charity EVER MANDATED?

    FIND YOUR COMMON SENSE—- UNMASK AMERICA!!

  • skeetr August 26, 2020 at 1:38 pm Reply

    @EC preach it! i wholeheartedly agree! give us the option of choosing! WE NEED LIBERTIES. why should anyone have to wear a damn face SUFFERCATOR is beyond me. even if RONA was real, they say it don’t even hurt the kids, they can go have a good normal day at school coughing and sneezing wherever the hell they want, picking their noses, and touching each others faces and come home to go over to grandmas house.

    i full on agree with YOU, in fact all these rules that limit my FREEDOM in the name of public health can go straight to HELL:

    if i wanna drink an drive, let me! why should I get arrested? its my car that ill crash anyway let it be my choice. LIBERTY!
    if i wanna step up to the salad bar in the outfit God gave me on my birthday, who is to judge me? tell ya one thing, NOT GOD so who else am i gonna care about right?
    if i wanna use and go take a dump on the sidewalk, who the hell cares? IT IS MY RIGHT AND PRIVILEGE. wont catch me using those SPY PIPES where they TRACK what i’ve been eating
    if i want to smoke my stogies in the ICU then I sure as hell can! DON’T TREAD ON ME

    you won’t catch me in a mask, your o2 detector is a LIAR! I NEED TO BREATHE! this fake virus wont hurt my lungs, they’re iron clad from years downwind from the pig farm anyway. all these doctors wearing masks for 16 hours a day are actually lizard men so they don’t count, either.

    nevermind salt lake county has the highest population density in utah(prolly a LIE) and is a travel hub(where is this airport they claim is there, LIE?) its because they’ve yet to accept trump into their hearts as their new LORD and SAVIOR that they suffer from the ronas

    • Nelle August 26, 2020 at 6:19 pm Reply

      You obviously watch CNN and have Corona coma. The comparisons you made were not even close to what I believe that comment refers to.
      I agree with EH because it’s time to get back to life. Our children don’t need to “get used to the new normal”. It’s not normal. You refer to Doctors who wear them- but that is a flawed comparison- doctors have chosen a profession where there is a protocol for this. They don’t wear them all day – while they talk to friends – use the restroom – it’s totally different. The drunk driving analogy is also flawed: the New York Times article that so many of you all like to quote. Once again, your CHOICE to drink then legally takes away the PRIVILEGE to drive. Driving isn’t a right, no matter what anyone says. And again the analogy of being naked as you walk up to a food buffet. Our country has laws about indecent exposure- though there are places this is allowed, if that is your CHOICE of apparel. But again, these are CHOICES people get to make. You have odd analogies and the poop and spy one has nothing to do with a school requiring kids to scan where they sit, so if someone gets sick they can then force you to stay home and be quarantined. This is unprecedented, and I agree that this should not be happening. What I read from EH was that the masks should not be mandated. Wearing a mask should be a choice. Because people in general know what to do to protect themselves. They don’t need someone looking over their shoulder to see if they are washing their hands. If I am fearful about getting sick, then I stay home , or I wear a mask and gloves and make that choice to do so. But because I am worried about myself – doesn’t give me the right to tell you that you must protect me. It’s no different than me asking you to carry a gun- just in case- I need someone to protect me— just in case – a criminal might attack me. It makes no sense. People- families – Americans – can make their own CHOICE to wear a mask or not— to protect themselves and or their families.
      And SLC is a densely populated city of course, but look at the numbers compared to what the mayor has required. While she sits in her cushy office and gets her paycheck, she requires businesses and churches and other places to stay shut. Then when they get to open, the restrictions have made so many places go under. The power grab is real and once you give someone that kind of power over your life, it’s hard to get it back.
      We don’t shut down the city every flu season, and I suppose there is a lot of viruses floating around then. So all your sarcasm completely misses the mark.
      And the sacrilegious part in your comment about Trump and the Savior, well no one I know thinks like that. Only you could have come up with that terrible thought.

      • Free Bird August 26, 2020 at 6:34 pm Reply

        Well said indeed! Not to mention Salt Lake City is a sanctuary city for illegal aliens, the main carriers of this disease.

        • Full-Brained August 27, 2020 at 10:09 am Reply

          R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-racist!

          • Free Bird August 27, 2020 at 5:44 pm

            Facts are facts! I know it twists your liberal brain, but oh well.

      • skeetr August 27, 2020 at 10:40 am Reply

        @Nelle you beautiful idiot, let me get my crayons and explain this to you. nothing is the new normal… until it is. time to get a grip, rub two synapses together and follow the science, not the news. the science says masks decrease transmission. distance decreases transmission. both together? even better. it’s not about your fear, my fear, anyone’s fear of being sick. its not about my protection, your protection, its the population’s protection. it’s about having half a brain. you defeat pandemics by tracking exposure and decreasing transmission. ok, got it? you have the right to tell someone else they cannot drive drunk, is it because of your fear of being struck by the driver? how selfish of you. get how you sound, yet?

        so anyway, big woosh. the ‘argument’ — if you even want to call it that, as it is more of a parody, is of laws as they they control irresponsible behavior in the name of public health. also, indecent exposure itself isn’t the public health issue, that’s a draconian morality issue that stems from the same ancient syndicate you subscribe to for your weekend head-cannon, but i digress.

        a virus doesn’t care that you “want to get back to life.” why not think about the people who have been doing the right thing this entire pandemic while the world repeatedly denies science and tries to ‘return to the old normal’ when news flash: IT AIN’T COMING? Instead we keep trying to “get back to life” and corona keeps clapping our ass each and every time. intelligent!

        you anti-maskers are acting like a face covering is a heretic fork, i’m saying medical professionals wear them every day without issues. ya, it’s their choice, they’re professionals and they are making it. take a clue? I don’t believe for a moment anyone cannot wear a piece of cloth over their face. let’s compare a mask to a REAL rights infringement issue: if a Saudi woman can be forced by religious law to wear a niqāb in 120F heat, I think shorts & tee Lindsee in 90F Utah can survive a face covering.

        by the way, no, I don’t watch CNN. do you watch Fox? wait, who gives a shit!? you say the news you watch sets your opinion? that’s sad as hell. well at least you’re clueless about the Trump = Savior analogy, it means you’re not completely tuned into those frequencies

        sure, driving isn’t a right, neither is having a city with open businesses… yet you still have those anyway? what are you complaining about, anyway? pandemics aren’t politics, and public health policies aren’t rights infringement.

        also @Free Bird hot take — illegal aliens, huh? what, do you call it the ‘chinavirus’ too? eat your big mac and shut the hell up.

      • skeetr August 27, 2020 at 11:07 am Reply

        Oh, and I keep missing parts of your comment since you’ve submitted a massive wall of text. There is a button on your keyboard called RETURN, learn to use it properly.

        Sorry, it’s entirely different to asking you to carry a firearm to protect me from a person who has attacked me. Namely, we have this thing called a police force who are big burly men with a little training that are supposed to uphold the law. Have you heard of this? So they walk around, carrying guns like you seem to enjoy, in case a criminal attacks you. Oh wait I get it! So you are saying maybe we need a pandemic police on patrol, pinning people to the ground and putting masks on people and spraying lysol in their face?

        Flu comparison? I agree, let’s improve and start wear masks during flu season too. Let’s evolve beyond the status of plague rats.
        Aw, businesses and churches are shutting down? If families must be able to float a year on savings, these entities can too. Good business skills, a bit of actual ‘revelation’ and they will be fine.

  • Kassie August 26, 2020 at 2:50 pm Reply

    I agree! Unmask these kids, we are making it easy for the creeps to snatch our kids! It is child abuse! The people with the power to change it should be ashamed of their self. They need to let the parents and students decide for their self what is best. We have gone to school every year with influenza floating around and never had these communistic rules!

    • skeetr August 27, 2020 at 10:53 am Reply

      Let’s spread a virus exponentially because we’re afraid of something that happens to one child in 300,000, half of which the kidnapping is by a family member. Having you for a mum is worse child abuse. DURR you’re just lazy obviously.

      • Nelle August 29, 2020 at 10:02 pm Reply

        Wow- you a little whacked. I think you forgot to take your pills.

        • skeetr August 31, 2020 at 3:29 pm Reply

          noted ad hominem because you’ve no other rebuttal.

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