March 20: Colorado will further relax COVID-19 restrictions managed through the state’s color-coded dial next week, with plans to facilitate the order of masks across the state in two weeks and then deliver control of most public health orders in local governments in mid-April.
Proposed changes to the dial include the reopening of bars in most parts of the state for the first time since last summer and the removal of all size limits for personal meetings statewide.
On Friday evening, the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment released a draft of the plan called “Dial 3.0” and requested public information about the proposed changes, which will take effect (with possible modifications) on Wednesday. .
The main goal of the new plan is to make it easier for counties to reach the green level, the lower end of the dial, and eliminate most virus-related restrictions in counties at this stage of the dial, including capacity limits. catering in restaurants.
Other changes would allow the bars to reopen in Blue Level counties with reduced capacity and raise all capacity limits at outdoor events in Green and Blue Level counties.
The plan released Friday evening also requires a statewide modified mask order to be issued on April 4th. This directive would raise the mask requirements to green level boards for everyone except 11- to 18-year-old students until the end of the school year.
Private companies and local governments could still issue their own mask warrants.
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For the Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Red levels, the mask mandate would remain in effect for the same group of students and for any indoor public place with 10 or more people present. The existing state mask order would remain in effect for all counties that reached the Purple level, the highest phase.
Under that plan, Dial 3.0 would remain in effect until April 16, at which time a new statewide public health order would be issued to continue the boundaries of unsettled internal meetings. Beyond that, the dial and previous state public health orders would become a guide that local governments could choose to follow or not.
The announcement of new changes to the state’s COVID-19 dial came on the same day that the state opened up the possibility of vaccinating 2.5 million more people and, as public health officials recognize an increasing number of coronavirus variants infections that are more contagious in the state and plan of general cases and hospitalizations.
“Because of the commitment of all Coloradoans, we are where we are now, able to be less restrictive and provide local communities and their public health agencies with more control while protecting public health,” said Jill Hunsaker Ryan, director executive of the state health department, in a statement. “It’s all about balance. We’ve taken the restraints we need to curb the disease as we try to limit the ramifications of closing parts of the state and the impacts they entail.”
Colorado implemented the color-coded dial in September as a way to move the state’s 64 counties to different levels of public health restrictions based on local virus transmission and hospitalizations for COVID-19.
The state, however, has changed dial metrics several times since then, including the addition of a new upper end – Level Purple – when it appeared many counties were heading for another blockade and a relaxation of restrictions. with the release of “Dial 2.0” last month.
Currently, only two counties are at Level Green (Crowley and Otero) and 45 at Level Blue, the second lowest restriction level. Level Blue counties in the subway area include Arapahoe and Jefferson.
The remaining 17 counties are at Level Yellow, the next stage of the dial, which includes Denver, Adams, Douglas and Boulder counties. Broomfield had moved to the Blue Level, but earlier this month returned to the Yellow Level.
Recently, Denver approached qualifying for the Blue Level before a small rise in cases pushed the city back; the numbers are trending in that direction again and the city may be able to qualify at some point next week.
Dial 3.0 plan changes include:
– Metrics for the change of green level to facilitate to the counties the arrival to this phase, happening to 35 cases COVID-19 by 100,000 people of 15 cases by 100,000
– Most Level Green restrictions are completely removed, including dining caps for restaurants. Bars, gyms and indoor events would be kept up to a 50% capacity limit or a 500 person limit, whichever is lower.
– Blue level metrics would also change, from 36 to 100 cases per 100,000 people, from 15 to 100 cases per 100,000
– Bars could reopen the blue level, with a capacity limit of 25% or 75 people, whichever is less
– Green and blue outdoor events would have no capacity restrictions unless counties decided to implement them locally.
– Retail trade, offices and non-critical manufacturing in Blue Level counties could operate at a capacity of 75%, from 50%
– There is no state limit on the size of personal meetings, although Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends avoiding large meetings
– State-certified 5-star companies in Blue Level counties could operate at 60% capacity, with no more than 50 people above the caps for restaurants and indoor events and 25 people above the caps for gyms .
State health officials say they are moving forward with the changes due to the growing number of Coloradoans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
In the middle of next month, the state health agency plans to move to a “more local model,” which would allow county health departments to take greater control over the types of capacity restrictions currently dictated by the dial.
The state health department invites Coloradans to review the Dial 3.0 proposal and submit comments using an online form. The deadline to receive comments is Monday at noon. The state will release an updated draft on Tuesday, the changes will take effect on Wednesday.
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