Travel Declarations and Geo-tracking
New measures are now implemented at major entry points into the state to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Today Governor Gary Herbert was joined by Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and UDOT Executive Director Carlos Braceras to explain the new tracking measures. You can view their briefing here.
Salt Lake International Airport self-declaration
Travelers coming into Salt Lake City's airport who are 18 years and older will be asked to self-declare whether they have symptoms of the virus. As they exit the airport they will be given a QR code to answer key health and travel questions.
Roadway traffic self-declaration and geo tracking
Checkpoints are in place at 9 major entry points on Utah's roadways. Each vehicle crossing the checkpoint will be geo-tracked and sent a text with a link to the self-declaration form. The form will ask about symptoms, travel history, Braceras says the map of checkpoints will be on the state's coronavirus website:https://coronavirus.utah.gov/
Information collected will populate Utah's Health Department's secure travel base for tracing and any follow up directives.
Mayor Erin Mendenhall says "Now isn't the time to let off the gas. We need to keep working together to evolving quickly with new methods as we are today." She adds, "We need to keep working together to make sure all Utah residents are staying home and staying safe."
ULCT will keep notifying you, the leaders of our cities and towns, about efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. In fact, you can choose the type of information you receive from the League via email by customizing your content here.
We are also updating our ULCT COVID-19 information and resources page which you can find on our website, www.ulct.org. On this page, you can also submit your coronavirus questions for our weekly live virtual conversations with Lt. Governor Spencer Cox. We finished re-organizing the page today to make it more user-friendly and easier to navigate all of the resources that we’ve created or collected for you.
CARES Act Update
ULCT Executive Director Cameron Diehl participated in a conference call with the White House, Treasury Department, and other federal agencies and a second call with the National League of Cities. There are two key updates on the CARES Act. First, the Treasury Department announced that their guidance about the Coronavirus Relief Fund—the fund that will allocate $1.25 billion to the State of Utah for state and local government reimbursements of “necessary expenditures”—will likely come next week instead of this week. As we mentioned last week, ULCT and UAC submitted a joint letter to the Treasury Department urging flexibility in their guidance which you can see HERE. You can also see the letter that NLC submitted to President Trump on the issue HERE. ULCT and UAC also submitted joint letters to the Governor and legislative leadership requesting that they work with local governments in implementing the CARES Act. We expect the CARES Act to be a topic of conversation at next week’s special session so stay tuned.
In the meantime, please submit our ULCT COVID-19 fiscal impact survey HERE so that we can understand the scope of the challenges that you are facing.
Second, the Paycheck Protection Program which ULCT highlighted yesterday will likely be insufficient to meet the growing demand from businesses across the country. As such, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell intends to push $250 billion in additional business lending authorizations for small businesses. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have countered that they would like to see additional funding for state and local governments, hospitals, and small businesses. Tomorrow could be a fascinating day in DC.
Thank you for your membership in ULCT. You are the strength of the League! Stay safe.
Team ULCT
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