It is confident it can prevent mass deaths and an overwhelming hospital system, and Colorado is easing restrictions, even in provinces where coronavirus cases remain high.
On a call Saturday with city and county leaders, government officials presented a new guideline for more dedicated rules at the provincial level, with more changes planned for mid-2021.
The changes will allow for greater economic and social freedoms, reflecting the state’s confidence that it can avoid overwhelming hospitals with cases as Colorado’s oldest and most dangerous population is gradually vaccinated.
“Coloradans have made significant sacrifices to reduce the transmission of disease, so it’s time to update the dial to reflect this reality, plus the growing number of people being immunized,” said Jill Hunsaker Ryan, director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said in a statement following the call with government leaders.
According to several sources who were called on Saturday, but who were not authorized to share the information they received, the draft proposal for Dial 2.0 will lead to an announcement of policy changes within the next few days, perhaps Wednesday. Previously, it planned to obtain public input.
The state plans Dial 3.0 in March, with another possible update to follow a few months later.
Colorado has a color-coded rotary knob, ranging from green (most indulgent) to purple (most severe), which determines the capacity levels and social behavior in provinces, depending on the level of virus transmission in the provinces. The constraints associated with each color cannot change in Dial 2.0, but the state does intend to relax the benchmark requirements.
For example, to qualify for Level Orange – the current level for most Colorado counties, and the third most restrictive on the lathe – a country must have an incidence of new positive COVID-19 cases between 175 and 350 per 100,000 people . Any higher than 350 per 100,000, and a country qualifies for Level Red. Under Dial 2.0, provinces qualify for Level Orange if their incidence rises to 499 per 100,000. The current Level Red threshold is defined as above 350 per 100,000 people, and in Dial 2.0 it will be bumped to 500.
The current rotary knob also bases restrictions on 14-day samples, and under Dial 2.0 it will change after seven days, meaning a country can move up or down faster if the criteria change.
In addition, provinces with less than 20,000 inhabitants can receive ‘special attention’ to offset their weekly volatility in positivity rates.
Virus cases remain high here, with the latest estimate suggesting that 1 in 115 Coloradans is contagious with COVID-19. Public health officials are also wary of new and more contagious variants of the virus, some of which have been detected in Colorado.
At a news conference Friday, Gov. Jared Polis told reporters that he expected half of Coloradans older than 70 to be vaccinated by Feb. 8, by which date the state plans to begin vaccinating the 65-69 population. Once the oldest Colorado dance is vaccinated, it ends the ‘crisis phase’ of the pandemic. Police were not on Saturday’s call; he said he was being vaccinated today.
Local officials were given the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback, and one source of the call said: ‘In general, we understand why these changes are being made. … We all have many questions: two things: one, to understand how to keep our communities safe, and two, how to give our businesses as much freedom as possible. ”
Dr. John Douglas, executive director of the Tri County Department of Health, said the time was right for a change.
“The knob was a useful tool to help us manage our response to the pandemic, but it needs to be updated based on the lessons learned over the past five months,” he said in a prepared statement.
Colorado has already changed the pointer once and added Level Purple in November, amid an increase in cases and deaths. The state did not always adhere to its own rules, and sometimes allowed provinces to flexibly if the statistics did not justify it.
State officials on Saturday briefed provincial and city leaders and directors of public health and asked for feedback and will seek public input through an online survey.
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