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.
