Utah’s only COVID-19 death attended Bountiful Temple last week, church confirms

Bountiful Utah Temple | Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

SALT LAKE CITY — The first Utahn to die from COVID-19 attended the Bountiful Utah Temple last week before he died 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.

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 is the first of the church’s 17 Utah temples to close due to the pandemic.

The church has closed 91 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:

1. Aba Nigeria Temple
2. Accra Ghana Temple
3. Adelaide Australia Temple
4. Apia Samoa Temple
5. Arequipa Peru Temple
6. Asunción Paraguay Temple
7. Barranquilla Colombia Temple
8. Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple
9. Bern Switzerland Temple
10. Bogotá Colombia Temple
11. Bountiful Utah Temple
12. Brisbane Australia Temple
13. Buenos Aires Argentina Temple
14. Campinas Brazil Temple
15. Caracas Venezuela Temple
16. Cebu City Philippines Temple
17. Chicago Illinois Temple
18. Cochabamba Bolivia Temple
19. Columbia River Washington Temple
20. Columbus Ohio Temple
21. Copenhagen Denmark Temple
22. Córdoba Argentina Temple
23. Curitiba Brazil Temple
24. Dallas Texas Temple
25. Detroit Michigan Temple
26. Fortaleza Brazil Temple
27. Frankfurt Germany Temple
28. Freiberg Germany Temple
29. Fresno California Temple
30. Fukuoka Japan Temple
31. Guadalajara Mexico Temple
32. Guatemala City Guatemala Temple
33. Guayaquil Ecuador Temple
34. Halifax Nova Scotia Temple
35. Hartford Connecticut Temple
36. Helsinki Finland Temple
37. Indianapolis Indiana Temple
38. Kansas City Missouri Temple
39. Kinshasa DR Congo Temple
40. Kyiv Ukraine Temple
41. Las Vegas Nevada Temple
42. Lima Peru Temple
43. Lisbon Portugal Temple
44. London England Temple
45. Los Angeles California Temple
46. Louisville Kentucky Temple
47. Madrid Spain Temple
48. Manaus Brazil Temple
49. Manhattan New York Temple
50. Manila Philippines Temple
51. Melbourne Australia Temple
52. Montreal Quebec Temple
53. Nauvoo Illinois Temple
54. Newport Beach California Temple
55. Oakland California Temple
56. Palmyra New York Temple
57. Panama City Panama Temple
58. Papeete Tahiti Temple
59. Paris France Temple
60. Perth Australia Temple
61. Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple
62. Porto Alegre Brazil Temple
63. Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple
64. Portland Oregon Temple
65. Preston England Temple
66. Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple
67. Recife Brazil Temple
68. Redlands California Temple
69. Regina Saskatchewan Temple
70. Reno Nevada Temple
71. Rexburg Idaho Temple
72. Rome Italy Temple
73. Sacramento California Temple
74. San Diego California Temple
75. San Salvador El Salvador Temple
76. Santiago Chile Temple
77. Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple
78. São Paulo Brazil Temple
79. Sapporo Japan Temple
80. Seattle Washington Temple
81. Seoul Korea Temple
82. St. Louis Missouri Temple
83. Stockholm Sweden Temple
84. Sydney Australia Temple
85. Taipei Taiwan Temple
86. Tegucigalpa Honduras Temple
87. The Hague Netherlands Temple
88. Toronto Ontario Temple
89. Trujillo Peru Temple
90. Tucson Arizona Temple
91. Vancouver British Columbia Temple

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