Colorado counties at the Red Level on the state’s COVID-19 dial – including Denver and the entire Front Range – will see a relaxation of public health restrictions starting next week, Governor Jared Polis announced on social media Wednesday night. market.
The downgrade of these counties to Orange Level, which will allow small public meetings and restaurants will resume limited meals indoors, occurred at the time the state confirmed this week that the new most contagious variant of the virus detected in the UK has reached Colorado.
In moving to ease the restrictions, Polis aimed to improve conditions for COVID-19 across the state, although counties have been moved to Red Level due to their own individual circumstances. The governor cited a sustained decline in new coronavirus infections in Colorado in the past 13 days and noted that only 73% of ICU beds were in use across the state.
Metropolitan counties, including Denver, Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Jefferson, all still have two-week case incidence levels in the red, according to state data – although their hospitalizations and positivity rates, the other main indicators, are doing better.
“This is a direct result of the intensification of the coloradans and the adoption of measures to protect themselves and others,” wrote Polis of the state’s improved metrics. “In light of this and based on the data, I am asking (the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment) to move counties from Red to Orange, starting on Monday.”
In mid-November, state health officials transferred Denver and more than a dozen other counties to the Red Level, the second highest level of restrictions and one step away from a stay-at-home order, based on case incidences. each county, positivity rates and hospitalization numbers. This required, among other measures, that restaurants suspend all in-person meals.
Since then, the state has moved more counties to the Red Level, to the point that half of Colorado counties are now in that phase on the COVID-19 dial.
When reviewing the data, Colorado has been on a sustained decline for 13 days and only 73% of ICU beds across the state are in use.
In light of that and based on the data, I am asking @CDPHE to move counties in red on the dial to orange, starting on Monday, January 4, 2021. pic.twitter.com/asiAGRHjTO
– Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) December 31, 2020
At Orange Level, meetings of up to 10 people from no more than two families will be allowed again; restaurants can reopen for face-to-face meals with 25% capacity or up to 50 people; offices can increase capacity from 10% to 25%; and gyms can increase their capacity to 25%, or 25 people, from 10% or 10 people.
“I am excited that we have successfully avoided another block so far,” wrote Polis. “To save lives, perhaps even yours, it is more important than ever that coloradans don’t gather outside to celebrate the new year and continue to take the basic steps to protect themselves and others, like wearing masks, just interacting with their own homes, and stay 6 feet away from others when in public. “
The new COVID-19 cases in Colorado are still at a high level, although they showed a downward trend most of the month, with 13,566 reported last week – less than half that in the first week of December. Although the state has not seen an increase in cases after Thanksgiving Day, it will still take a few weeks for public health officials to know whether the coloradans have managed to prevent an increase in Christmas and New Year as it takes time for people take the test and that is reflected in the state data.
Last week, Beth Carlton, associate professor of occupational and environmental health at the Colorado School of Public Health, told The Denver Post that if the current rate of case decline continues, Colorado could reach the level of infections seen during the peak early spring in mid-January – and it would take until March to return to the comparatively safe levels seen during the summer.
State officials have also failed to assess the spread of the new variant B.1.1.7 detected this week in Elbert County.
“The concern, of course, is that if it is spreading faster and more people have it, even with regular hospitalization rates, it can be overwhelming for our health systems,” Dr. Eric France, medical director of the Department Colorado Public Health and Environment, said during a news conference on Wednesday.
Hospitalizations were also falling in Colorado, even a small plateau that started at Christmas. Wednesday saw another drop, with 1,150 confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients in Colorado hospitals, a level last seen in early November.
Deaths also appear to have started to decline, but not before the record weeks of November and early December. Colorado recorded 4,750 virus-related deaths during the course of the pandemic, with more than half occurring during the large increase in new cases through the fall.