There is no way to avoid seeing the economic impact COVID-19 health restrictions have created across the nation, and many business owners in Pueblo County are watching the climate with concern.
However, local officials are confident in a program designed to help ease restrictions for approved businesses to operate at one level higher than the county s COVID-19 metrics would ordinarily allow.
Pueblo County Commissioner Garrison Ortiz has worked with many stakeholders to ensure that Pueblo County will qualify for Colorado s 5 Star variance program, and has been pursuing the matter since at least early December. On Monday, a statewide order from Gov. Jared Polis shifted all counties that were listed as Level Red in the statewide COVID-19 scale to the less-restrictive level Orange.
On January 4, under orders from Governor Jared Polis, all counties designated at COVID-19 Level Red on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment s dial dashboard were moved to Level Orange, allowing limited on-site dining at restaurants and other loosened restrictions. As of January 8, however, the majority of Colorado counties are still at Level Red standards when it comes to their number of cases, and several are in parts of the state where the availability of intensive-care unit beds is calculated at 0 percent.
During a January 6 press conference, Polis defended the Level Red-to-Level Orange shift by saying that while the novel coronavirus remains extremely prevalent statewide, hospital capacity is the north star for determining whether tighter regulations should be imposed. At the time, he stressed, those figures were holding steady but that s not universally true today.
2121 Children s Museum Drive While Denver s Children s Museum, plagued by sticky-fingered kiddos, isn t exactly known as a germ-free zone during normal times, it has shifted operations to be touch-free and has implemented strict cleaning procedures in order to invite youngsters back for what so many have been missing: education and entertainment.
Social distancing has often been the norm at the Clyfford Still Museum, though mask-wearing is now required.
Leanne Goebel 1250 Bannock Street The Clyfford Still Museum a temple to the great abstract-expressionist, offering a rotation of exhibits and regular, smart programming has reopened its doors to the public and will be extending its run of Still s later works through March 21. The institution also offers plenty of virtual programming for those who are not quite ready to leave their homes.
An increase in COVID-19 cases in Colorado was feared in the wake of Thanksgiving, but didn t materialize to any great degree. But during a January 8 press conference, Governor Jared Polis and state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy confirmed that over the past few days, there has been a bump in infections related to Christmas, and they acknowledged that there could be another rise as early as next week in connection with New Year s Eve celebrations.
Polis reported that 3,187 positive cases were reported on January 8, with a total of 4,107 deaths in the state directly attributable to the novel coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. But he also said he was pleased that testing rates, which had lagged over the holidays, are starting to pick up again; more than 50,000 tests were conducted on January 7, and 43,000-plus had already taken place by mid-day on January 8.