With the highest prevalence of COVID-19 in Colorado, Pitkin County will close indoor eateries at restaurants Sunday and move fully into the red level restrictions.
Monday’s unanimous decision by the seven members of the Pitkin County Board of Health also includes a 50% capacity limit on accommodations in Aspen and Snowmass Village and insurance by Aspen Skiing Co. to improve COVID-19 protocols.
Ski Mountains will remain open for the time being without a reservation system, although indoor dining restaurants on the mountain will cease.
“We communicated until our eyes fell out,” said Greg Poschman, commissioner of Pitkin County, also a member of the health council. “Yet we still have many people … who do not agree with us.
“It’s time. We have to do it. It’s painful. It’s not forever.”
Outdoors, takeaways and deliveries at restaurants will be available, but there will be a last call at 8pm and tables can only have people from the same household.
Indoor dining and sleeping space were the biggest changes made to the latest public health order Monday, as most Pitkin County businesses and services – with the exception of restaurants – have been operating under the red-level restrictions since Dec. 21.
The new public health order, which takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, changes the criteria for when the country will move in and out of the restrictions at the red level and makes it softer than state guidelines. Pitkin County, however, needs to show a 14-day drop in dazzling looks, before the province goes back to the restrictions at the Orange level.
According to Josh Vance, the country’s epidemiologist, and local epidemiological data, the prevalence hit 3,036 on Friday and stood at 2,934 on Monday, with the result that Christmas and New Year have not yet hit.
“Three thousand within a period of 14 days is very high,” Vance said.
The highest incidence in the state – the nearest second Monday was Bent County at about 2,500 – means that 1 in every 35 Pitkin County residents is currently infected with COVID-19, said Jordana Sabella, interim director of public health.
“We’re not doing really well with disease prevention,” she said.
Vance said he has done a lot of research into why Pitkin County is experiencing such a big boom, while none of the county’s neighbors and most of the rest of the country have it to no avail.
“I can not give you a good answer at the moment,” he said. “We have not fallen on one indicator yet.”
Monday’s hospitalization figure showed that two people were connected to COVID-19 at Aspen Valley Hospital on Sunday, when they were automatically placed in the ICU. According to local data, the country’s positivity rate was at 12.7% on Monday.
The state of Colorado has previously detained most provinces that have moved to Red at five to six weeks at this level of restrictions, Sabella said. At that point, the state required the incidence to drop below 350 to pull out of Red, although the governor recently moved all provinces that were in Red to Orange due to declining incidence.
On Monday, the Pitkin County Health Council adopted a recommendation for health care professionals to move to Red if the incidence rate for 14 days is above 700. The same would happen if the positivity rate came on the Red Level thresholds for 14 days and the hospitalization rate came on the thresholds only one day, or vice versa.
The province will move from the red level restrictions and back to Orange when the incidence drops below 700 and has been declining for 14 days. The 700 level was chosen because trackers and disease investigators in the country can handle the number of cases associated with it, Vance said.
In an effort to get restaurants and other local businesses to work with the highest possible capacity as soon as the incidence rate decreases, the country will also begin preparations to launch a state program that will enable them to work with fewer restrictions, provided they agree to certain COVID -19 protocols.
Provincial officials will apply to the state to launch the so-called 5 Star program and put it in place for businesses that want to participate as soon as the incidence level drops, Sabella said. The program can only take effect before the incidence rate decreases for 14 days and ends up below 700, the positivity rate is below 10% and less than 90% of the hospital beds are used.
As for skiing, the four ski mountains in the area will remain open, though indoor eateries at mountain restaurants will close on Sunday when the rest of the country’s indoor eateries stop, according to the new public health order. Aspen Skiing Co. has committed to improving the face mask and social distance on the ski mountains, but will not implement a reservation system, says Jon Peacock, manager of Pitkin County.
This is because Skico has not yet exceeded the capacity limit approved by the state in one day, Peacock said. The capability was blocked from a copy of the report provided to The Aspen Times because it was considered personal information.
If the number of skiers starts to exceed capacity, Skico officials are willing to set up a booking system, he said.
The accommodation sector has agreed to continue enforcing the rule for one household per unit, Sabella said. The exception to the rule allowed two households in the same unit when the booking was made by December. This exception is no longer applicable, and only one household per unit is allowed under the new public health order, regardless of when the booking was made, she said.
Officials in the province will also monitor weekly housing in the city and limit it to 50%, Sabella said.
Kurt Dahl, director of environmental health in the province, told members of the health council he was charged with improving the enforcement of public health orders and was looking for a model for the rangers in the Open Space and Trails. Plans also include more accountability measures for businesses that cater to private parties, such as DJs, party planners, caterers, valets, property managers, party hosts and party guests, he said.
Board members also decided not to create a placement of restaurants and other businesses affected by outbreaks. Sabella said the problem was regularly addressed during the reporting, which would penalize businesses unnecessarily if people used the mail to avoid it. Such actions can also discourage disease reports. This information is posted on a state outbreak website.
Businesses that receive citations or other enforcement actions may see this soon, Dahl says.
The Pitkin County communications team also plans to run campaigns to promote restaurants and better support businesses, to publish the state’s Pitkin County report card online three times a week and to post the local epidemiological report online, he said. said.
Officials are also working to provide information to individuals and families about the help they have available from local, state and federal sources. Pitkin County is hosting a community meeting on Thursday at 6 p.m. to discuss the changes and the resources available. (Go to covid19.pitkincounty.com for more information.)
The fate of Aspen restaurants took up most of the four-hour health council on Monday.
Several local restaurant owners have spoken out to keep them open at the current 25% indoor dining room level.
Wendy Mitchell, owner of Meat and Cheese and Hooch, advocated closing all businesses in the city for the shortest time possible to cause the least impact.
“We encourage people to come here,” she said. “We encourage people to travel. You need to take all these aspects into account and not just punish restaurants. ”
Other members of the community, however, spoke of the stricter restrictions.
“I’m in the front line,” said Dr. Greg Balko, a physician at AVH, said. ‘I see firsthand what’s going on. We need to do something. We can not keep doing what we are doing because the numbers keep going. ”
Councilors did make a concession to restaurants. The new public health order would take effect on Friday, though the board has postponed it until Sunday to give restaurants more time to cook and sell perishable items in their kitchens.