CORONAVIRUS
‘A Mask For Every Utahn’ Program Stops Taking Orders
Jul 15, 2020, 3:08 PM | Updated: 3:23 pm
The Utah Hospital Association and the state's largest health care systems are joining forces to encourage Utahns to wear face coverings and help slow the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic. (Mask Up Utah)
(Mask Up Utah)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – “A Mask for Every Utahn,” the initiative that gave free masks to Utans who needed protection from the spread of the coronavirus, has stopped taking new online face mask orders.
The program was run through the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) and a news release said it came to an end after reaching the total allotment of available masks.
The release said the state purchased 2.3 million face masks to help protect the health of Utahns during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The program was a partnership through the Utah Manufacturers Association, Cotopaxi and HM Cole.
The state’s order for masks helped to save more than 300 jobs by keeping Utah manufacturers open.
Ben Hart, GOED’s deputy director sad, “Through this project, we were able to distribute over a million free masks to Utahns. We could not have done this without the work and volunteer efforts of all who were involved. We hope Utahn’s benefited from this project as we do what we can to help try and slow the spread of COVID-19.”
The program also sent 140,000 masks to grocery stores, particularly those in under served areas where there have been high numbers of COVID-19 cases.
‘A Mask for Every Utahn’ fulfilled nearly 1.24 million masks requests, from almost 280,000 household orders, the release said, and it provided masks to all K-12 students, teachers, and faculty in the state.
Governor Herbert mandated last week, that all students and faculty headed back to classrooms in the fall are required to wear face masks in buildings and on school buses.
