Looking to provide reminders about the spread of COVID-19 within the state, Utah recently used the Wireless Emergency Alert to push a warning to all phones capable of receiving one. The message read: “State of Utah: COVID-19 is spreading rapidly. Record cases. Almost every county is a high transmission area. Hospitals are nearly overwhelmed. By public health order, masks are required in high transmission areas. Social gatherings are limited to 10 or fewer,” this is thought to be the first time the Wireless Emergency Alert has been used to target an entire state, rather than a subregion.
According to state officials, “Despite the ongoing pandemic, there are a number of people who are not aware of the dire situation we find ourselves in. As a result, the emergency alert was an effort to ‘make sure nearly everyone is aware of the serious nature of the pandemic’.”
Speaking to 2KUTV, Joe Doherty, of the Utah Department of Public Safety, said, “We’ve seen a lot of vitriol from people who are opposing the government’s recommendations and public health orders, but we think there’s a lot of people who just don’t understand the full gravity of the situation right now.”
Source:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/30/us/utah-emergency-alert-covid-19-trnd/index.html
https://kutv.com/news/coronavirus/the-reason-for-utahs-statewide-covid-19-emergency-alert
