SALT LAKE CITY — The first Utahn to die from COVID-19 attended the Bountiful Utah Temple last week before succumbing to the virus on Sunday, according to a spokeswoman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I can confirm the (individual) was a member of the church who attended the temple on a day in the week prior to his diagnosis,” Irene Caso said.
Local health officials said the temple attendance should not cause alarm.
“Patrons, volunteers or workers at the Bountiful temple are not considered at risk because their temple attendance was prior to the case’s onset of symptoms,” said Isa Perry, public information officer for the Davis County Health Department. “Our guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control are that those who are considered at risk are those who were in close contact after onset of symptoms.”
The CDC website says “people are thought to be most contagious when they are most symptomatic (the sickest),” but that “some spread might be possible before people show symptoms... .”
Utah Department of Health officials announced the Davis County man’s death on Sunday in a news conference. They said he was over the age of 60 and had tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. He was treated for two days at Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful before he died.
Hours after the news conference, the church announced on Sunday evening that it had closed the temple. The Bountiful temple was the first of the church’s 17 Utah temples to close due to the pandemic.
On Monday afternoon, the church announced it had closed its second Utah temple.
“Due to a potential COVID-19 exposure, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, which has been closed for maintenance, will remain closed for an additional week for evaluation,” Caso said.
The church now has closed 103 of its 168 temples around the world. The rest are operating on limited hours and performing living ordinances like temple weddings or sealings with fewer than 10 people at a time.
Health officials at Sunday’s news conference said they are working to contact anyone who may have been in close contact with the man before he tested positive for the illness.
They also said his infection appeared to be travel-related and not a case of community spread.
The protocol for a positive COVID-19 test is for local health department officials to do an investigation of the places an infected person has been and the people with whom he or she has been in contact to determine who might be at risk, said Jenny Johnson, a public information specialist with the Utah State Department of Health.
Anyone who has had close contact is told to quarantine and to watch for symptoms. They also are asked to check in with their local health department once or twice a day.
In a Facebook post, the man’s daughter said she was grateful to have him as her father and talked about his death.
He died quickly after the family prayed that he wouldn’t suffer, she said in the post. The family had known his lungs were compromised and he was “at risk.”
“Keeping our faith and trusting in God’s plan has led us to peace even with this outcome. If you have a loved one suffering from this virus right now, feel free to reach out. The pain is real,” she said in the post. “Please don’t let this heighten any fears you may have of the virus. I know this is scary, but I also know that God does not give us the spirit of fear.”
The temples currently closed are:
- Aba Nigeria Temple
- Accra Ghana Temple
- Adelaide Australia Temple
- Albuquerque New Mexico Temple
- Apia Samoa Temple
- Arequipa Peru Temple
- Asunción Paraguay Temple
- Barranquilla Colombia Temple
- Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple
- Bern Switzerland Temple
- Bogotá Colombia Temple
- Boston Massachusetts Temple
- Bountiful Utah Temple
- Brisbane Australia Temple
- Buenos Aires Argentina Temple
- Campinas Brazil Temple
- Caracas Venezuela Temple
- Cebu City Philippines Temple
- Chicago Illinois Temple
- Cochabamba Bolivia Temple
- Columbia River Washington Temple
- Columbus Ohio Temple
- Concepcion Chile Temple
- Copenhagen Denmark Temple
- Córdoba Argentina Temple
- Curitiba Brazil Temple
- Dallas Texas Temple
- Denver Colorado Temple
- Detroit Michigan Temple
- Durban South Africa Temple
- Fortaleza Brazil Temple
- Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple
- Frankfurt Germany Temple
- Freiberg Germany Temple
- Fresno California Temple
- Fukuoka Japan Temple
- Guadalajara Mexico Temple
- Guatemala City Guatemala Temple
- Guayaquil Ecuador Temple
- Halifax Nova Scotia Temple
- Hartford Connecticut Temple
- Helsinki Finland Temple
- Houston Texas Temple
- Indianapolis Indiana Temple
- Kansas City Missouri Temple
- Kinshasa DR Congo Temple
- Kyiv Ukraine Temple
- Laie Hawaii Temple
- Las Vegas Nevada Temple
- Lima Peru Temple
- Lisbon Portugal Temple
- London England Temple
- Los Angeles California Temple
- Louisville Kentucky Temple
- Madrid Spain Temple
- Manaus Brazil Temple
- Manhattan New York Temple
- Manila Philippines Temple
- Medford Oregon Temple
- Melbourne Australia Temple
- Montreal Quebec Temple
- Nauvoo Illinois Temple
- Newport Beach California Temple
- Oakland California Temple
- Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple
- Palmyra New York Temple
- Panama City Panama Temple
- Papeete Tahiti Temple
- Paris France Temple
- Perth Australia Temple
- Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple
- Porto Alegre Brazil Temple
- Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple
- Portland Oregon Temple
- Preston England Temple
- Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple
- Recife Brazil Temple
- Redlands California Temple
- Regina Saskatchewan Temple
- Reno Nevada Temple
- Rexburg Idaho Temple
- Rome Italy Temple
- Sacramento California Temple
- San Antonio Texas Temple
- San Diego California Temple
- San Jose Costa Rica Temple
- San Salvador El Salvador Temple
- Santiago Chile Temple
- Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple
- São Paulo Brazil Temple
- Sapporo Japan Temple
- Seattle Washington Temple
- Seoul Korea Temple
- St. Louis Missouri Temple
- Stockholm Sweden Temple
- Sydney Australia Temple
- Taipei Taiwan Temple
- Tegucigalpa Honduras Temple
- The Hague Netherlands Temple
- Toronto Ontario Temple
- Trujillo Peru Temple
- Tucson Arizona Temple
- Vancouver British Columbia Temple