Utah Governor Gary Herbert has declared a state of emergency and implemented a set of guidelines, including a mask mandate, as COVID-19 infections surge.
The state has seen more than 2,000 news cases per day for the last week and Greg Bell, president and CEO of the Utah Hospital Association said the situation is "unsustainable."
"We've long been urging the governor to make the wearing of masks mandatory. That's been done more on a local level and hasn't hitherto been needed in rural areas, but right now, we're in it deep and we have to have some intervention," Bell told Cheddar.
While mask wearing has become a political debate, particularly in Republican-led states, Bell said Utah's legislative leadership has been "by-and-large on board."
"We're seeing two-thirds of the state or more saying 'Look it's time we got absolutely serious about this.' It can't just be a few of us. It's got to be all of us, or it's not going to make a difference," he continued.
As the number of hospitalizations in Utah continues to rise, a very real concern for many patients — and those on the fence about admitting themselves to a hospital — are the growing costs of healthcare and emergency room visits.
Yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court hearing seemed to suggest it is likely to allow the Affordable Care Act to continue to exist, even without the controversial individual mandate. However, many still question why healthcare is so expensive.
President Trump, through executive order, required medical price transparency and recently finalized a rule that requires insurance companies to disclose healthcare price points so patients can make more informed decisions before seeking medical care.
Bell and the Utah Hospital Association are fighting against that executive order, which is set to begin rolling out January 1, 2021.
"Hospital pricing is way too complex. In a way it's indefensible, but it's also a system that's been foisted on us by the federal government and the insurance companies," he told Cheddar.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
