Updated plan has businesses open as soon as 'early May'

By Brice Wallace

State and business leaders have updated a plan that would ease COVID-19-prompted business restrictions, possibly as early as this week.

Gov. Gary Herbert and others recently announced the second version of the “Utah Leads Together” plan, which features guidelines for reactivating Utah’s economy and transitioning from an “urgent” stage to “stabilization” on the path toward economic recovery.

In announcing the updated plan, Herbert said that in early May, certain businesses could reopen, at least on a limited basis and with social distancing, employee and customer screening and other health protocols in place. Examples include opening gyms and allowing in-house dining at restaurants.

“So you can see we’re going to start loosening the brake,” Herbert said in an online town hall. “As I’ve said before, this is not an on-off switch. This is really an incremental opportunity to transition from our urgency stage to our stability stage, and if we do that correctly then [we] assume around the corner will be recovery.”

That recovery phase could begin before the summer is over, he said. “And we can have, I think, a very healthy fourth quarter of this year,” the governor said.

Derek Miller, chair of the Utah Economic Response Task Force and president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber, said the new plan — available at coronavirus.utah.gov — “contains a framework for reactivating our economy” and includes guidelines and best practices for businesses based on certain risk levels.

“I believe that Utah Leads Together 2.0 provides a roadmap for Utahns to see the light at the end of tunnel, to inspire hope and to demonstrate a vision for the public safety and economic renewal that we all seek,” Miller said.

The plan uses a color-coded health guidance system and a dial to help businesses understand the guidelines under which to operate depending on the levels of health risks.

“We’re thinking of it as a brightener, so we’re turning up or reactivating the economy,” Natalie Gochnour, executive director of the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, said of the dial concept. She added that the coronavirus is not a short-term problem but instead a new risk to manage. “And it’s through vigilance to these instructions that we share that we can manage that risk,” she said.

Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson said the plan represents “a little bit of easing” of government restrictions on business.

“We’re feeling that it’s time that we, with caution, start to get moving in the community again,” Wilson said. She cautioned, however, that allowing mass gatherings is “way down the road” and the limiting of gatherings to fewer than 10 people remains in place.

Several speakers at the town hall said the plan likely will change. Gochnour said five versions might eventually be formulated. Kris Cox, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, said data and experience would guide any changes to industry guidelines going forward.

“Those will evolve and change as we learn, as we get new feedback, as we see what’s working and not working. … So, this is not over. It’s dynamic,” Cox said.

Miller said the updated Utah plan is designed, in part, to instill costumer confidence.

“It’s one thing for a business to be open, but it is something else entirely for a customer to feel comfortable to walk in that business door,” he said. “That is why the measured approach that is contemplated in Version 2.0 of the Utah Leads Together plan is not just a plan for business. In fact, it’s not just a plan for how businesses can begin to dial up and reactivate their business, but it is also a plan for building up consumer confidence and encouraging Utahns to stay engaged in the economy.”

Both Miller and Jacey Skinner, general counsel and vice president of public policy at the Salt Lake Chamber, stressed that the business guidelines listed in the plan are the result of input from more than 80 industry associations, chambers of commerce and businesses throughout the state.

“We’re not talking about a government edict from on high that says, ‘This is how you’re going to stay safe or stay open,’” Miller said. “We’re talking about a grassroots effort for businesses to show what they can do to adapt, to innovate and to overcome.”

“I think throughout this challenge we have seen individuals who have tried to make things more difficult as opposed to try to make our way through it,” Skinner said. “Just to remember, we are all in this together. Your industry is suffering as is everyone else’s, and everyone working together can create a way forward in a positive way.”

The easing of business restrictions comes at a time when protesters in Utah and other states have rallied to have government restrictions eliminated, allowing businesses to reopen. In a proverbial “health versus wealth” battle, others contend that fully opening businesses now is unwise and could lead to more problems from the virus.

“If we lift public health measures prematurely,” Gochnour said, “we’ll destabilize confidence and hurt the economy.”