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COVID outbreak reported at Mormon missionary training center

PROVO, Utah (AP) — All 588 missionaries at the Provo, Utah missionary training center were tested and a total of 91 tested positive.
COVID outbreak reported at Mormon missionary training center
Missionaries take Thai lessons at the Missionary Training Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Provo, Utah, on June 18, 2013. Photo by Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune
Associated Press

PROVO, Utah (AP) — An outbreak of COVID-19 has been reported at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ main training center for missionaries in Provo, Utah, church officials said Thursday.

The Provo Missionary Training Center, which resumed in-person training in June, requires all missionaries to be fully vaccinated and also conducts COVID-19 testing.

Face coverings will now be required in all indoor spaces and missionaries will not travel to their assigned missions unless they have tested negative for COVID-19 or have completed any necessary quarantine periods, said church spokesperson Sam Penrod.


New arriving missionaries will be required to have a negative COVID-19 test when they report to the center, he said.

After several missionaries tested positive this week, all 588 missionaries at the Provo center were tested and a total of 91 tested positive. Very few of those who tested positive reported feeling ill or having any symptoms, he said.

The center is still operating at a reduced capacity and has enough space to separate those who have tested negative from those who have tested positive for the respiratory virus.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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