SALT LAKE CITY – Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall has signed an executive order requiring everyone — vaccinated or not — to wear masks inside all city facilities until further notice, following recent updates to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

The mayor said she has always followed CDC guidance and she is happy to do it now.

“As a city, we’ve always looked to the CDC and our health experts to guide our actions against the spread of COVID-19, and today is no different,” Mendenhall told KSL TV. She said she would do more if she could.

“My abilities to require masks are limited in their scope over the course of the pandemic,” she said. “But I’m using them to their full extent to require that city employees and members of the public that come into city buildings wear face masks when they’re in any city facility.”

There are exceptions within the executive order for individuals with specific medical conditions.

Other exceptions to wearing a mask include:

• While actively eating or drinking, provided that the individual remains in place while eating or drinking;
• While alone or only with other members of the same household in an office, room, cubicle, vehicle or similar enclosure;
• When communicating as or with an individual who is deaf or hard of hearing if the speaker wears a face shield or uses alternative protection such as a plexiglass barrier;
• When engaging in work authorized by the city where wearing a face mask would create a risk to the individual, as determined by government safety guidelines;
• When needed to confirm an identity;
• While outdoors and maintaining a physical distance of at least six feet from any individual from a different household; and
• Children younger than 3 years old.

Mendenhall said the coronavirus is evolving and, as a city, she intends to follow evolving guidelines to protect people.

Today I signed an executive order requiring the public and City employees —vaccinated or not — to wear masks in City-owned buildings and facilities. We look to the CDC and health experts to guide our decisions & this move is in keeping with that commitmenthttps://t.co/czWwlrb9pq

— Mayor Erin Mendenhall (@slcmayor) July 28, 2021