July 20th 2020 Update

Happy Monday, team.  Another hectic day for us here in the Mayor's Office.  We have certainly been seeing a spike (or "surge" as the County Health Department calls it) in positive Coronavirus tests.  We are told that much of that has been related to the Memorial Day holiday - the first holiday when people in Utah started letting their guard down.  We actually had 5 people in our neighborhood get exposed over Memorial Day who later experienced full on Covid-19.  Additionally, there has been a backlog of test results getting back from labs which has also likely under-reported cases earlier and over-reported them later.  And, some testing that was done by testing for antigens (rather than the nasal swabs) was done for a few weeks but not counted in the tests to date.  But we are monitoring the issue carefully, even with all of the weirdness in the test results.

CORONAVIRUS STATS

Nationally, the CDC reports 3,761,362 cases with 140,157 fatalities

Utah*:  34,117 cases; 2,033 hospitalizations; 243 deaths 

Utah County*:  6,287 cases; 298 hospitalizations; 30 deaths

*Note the new added antigen numbers in our case counts

NEWS YOU CAN USE

• A new study from GearHungry.com — which surveyed 3,000 smart home users — recently found how well devices understand people when they speak, specifically looking at accents. Utahns’ Western accent was ranked as one of the least understood for devices across the country.  People who live in Spanish Fark know all about that...
• The citizen referendum challenging the creation of a license for brewpubs in Provo has narrowly failed to get enough signatures to make the ballot. The referendum fell less than 200 signatures short of making the ballot in November.
• There are 10 active wildfires currently burning across the state of Utah. Check out an updated list by KSL.

PROVO SOCIAL MEDIA

THE MAYOR'S DAY

Today, Mayor Kaufusi:

• Met with the Fire Chief
• Met with the Police Chief
• Met with the CAO
• Participated in a Covid-19 call for Utah County
• Held a staff meeting
• Participated in a meeting on Social Media
• Met with the City PIO
• Met with her executive team
• Met with members of the Utah Restoration Group

FUN STUFF

Now that we are under construction on the new city center, all eyes have been turning to an appropriate ribbon cutting ceremony - once we are through with the pandemic.  This was one idea submitted for our consideration.  What do you think?  Who would you like to see involved in this unique ribbon cutting program?

Hope your day has been great.  Back at you tomorrow on a Council Tuesday.  Keep Stayin' Alive!

Wayne