SALT LAKE CITY — While the global coronavirus outbreak has prompted numerous school closures and recommendations that large gatherings be canceled or postponed in other states, Utah lawmakers continue to meet in Utah Capitol — a building where people from all over the state visit daily.
As a second Utahn tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, the Legislature carried on with its business with an ongoing “no handshake rule,” discouraging face-to-face meetings with staff and the public, and urging anyone who is sick to stay home.
Aside from those measures — and a visit from Dr. Angela Dunn, state epidemiologist with the Utah Department of Health to answer questions in caucus meetings — it was mostly business as usual Tuesday for lawmakers with three days left until the session ends.
“We don’t want to overreact,” Gov. Gary Herbert said when asked about the session continuing. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be prudent. We ought to be wise and we ought to be careful and cautious but let’s go about our everyday lives and do what we need to be doing.”
The governor, who’ll turn 73 in May, said he’s “not afraid to go any place in the state of Utah.”
Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, the head of the state task force on the new coronavirus, said “we’re monitoring it very closely” and offering lawmakers advice on protecting themselves and others from the virus, but Utahns are not yet being advised to avoid large gatherings, including the Legislature.
“Come to the Legislature. We have hand-washing stations throughout the building. Take precautions,” the lieutenant governor said. “If you don’t have to, do something better with your time. But if you have to be here, you’re fine.”
That includes the thousands of schoolchildren who crowd the House and Senate galleries during visits to the Capitol, Cox said.
The state Capitol Preservation Board that manages the complex has stepped up janitorial services, cleaning surfaces in and around the historic building throughout the day, including the marble lions at the east entrance often climbed on by schoolchildren.
“We are sanitizing everything we possibly can, several times a day,” said Allyson Gamble, the board’s executive director.
Cox said a last-minute bill permitting lawmakers to meet remotely is being drafted at the request of the task force.
But Senate Budget Chairman Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, said, “if you look at this in perspective,” there’s no reason for lawmakers not to continue meeting at the Capitol since the 45-day session is scheduled to end at midnight on Thursday.
“I don’t see why we would need to make any changes,” Stevenson said. “It seems like we’re on a course to finish this session.”
Even so, the ability to hold a meeting without gathering at the Capitol could be critical if a special session of the Legislature is needed.
“We’ll need to have that just in case,” Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, a lawmaker on Utah’s COVID-19 Community Task Force, told the Deseret News, even though he said when it comes to the spread of the deadly virus, “Utah is still low risk right now.”
Ray acknowledged the Capitol building is a “petri dish,” but he said no other immediate measures are seen as necessary considering Utah has not yet seen community spread of the virus.
“The nice thing is we only have a couple more days left,” Ray said. “That’s a big key, too. I think if we were at the beginning of the session you might see a whole different way we approach it. But the fact it’s not even close to peaking. It’s just starting here. So we can get in and out of here without having to worry about too much.”
But if spread of the virus does worsen in the next few days before the end of the session Thursday, Ray said the Utah Legislature could adjourn early.
“We can do that at any time,” he said.
Ray on Tuesday received House permission to draft a bill to allow expansion of the governor’s declaration of a state emergency beyond 30 days.
Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful, urged lawmakers to support the effort, saying the state will need that added “flexibility” in coming weeks or months.
“Things are changing,” Ward said. “We really don’t know where we’ll be in 30 days.”
Utah lawmakers have also set aside $16 million for response to COVID-19. In addition to that $16 million, Ray said he’s also seeking $1.3 million out of reserves to be distributed directly to local health departments so they can ramp up efforts early.