But manager Jim Morrison canât say why, exactly.
âOf course our business is down,â he told the News&Guide. âItâs just too difficult to say how much is purely affidavit driven, COVID driven, or snow driven. Itâs pretty evident that people are willing to risk traveling in COVID environments, even at a high risk level.â
Why hotels in the Roaring Fork Valley are seeing so much less traffic than those in resort towns like Jackson Hole is a central question in an ongoing debate in Pitkin County. Health officials there have reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic in two ways that health officials in Teton County have not: by requiring visitors to fill out a form confirming theyâve tested negative before arriving in Aspen and shutting down indoor dining when cases peaked in early January.
That’s one more hour until last call.
Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Department of Public Health and Human Services Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan announced on Friday that several counties across the Centennial State can now begin to operate at a less-restrictive level “yellow” on the COVID-19 dial.
This includes Garfield County, and the “Dial 2.0” metric will officially go into effect at 9 a.m. Saturday just in time for Super Bowl Sunday.
“We’re on the right path but we’re not there yet,” Garfield County Commissioner John Martin said. “Let’s keep up the good work, and every week counts. Maybe by summertime we’ll be able to have our county fair and have all kinds of folks together and everybody will be well.”
Starting at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, Pitkin County will move back down into Orange-level restrictions, county officials said Monday.
Pitkin County will return to Orange-level COVID-19 restrictions at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, according to a daily epidemiology report and news release distributed Monday afternoon.
Among other changes, the update will allow restaurants to reinstate indoor dining and will lift the Red-level ban on personal gatherings.
“The county’s 14-day incidence rate has dipped under 700 cases per 100,000 persons as of this morning,” the Monday report states. “Red-level restrictions will be lifted starting tomorrow.”
Thanks to a rapidly declining incidence rate, Pitkin County health officials are able to relax restrictions barely two weeks after Red-level limitations went into effect in Pitkin County on Jan. 17; the Board of Health voted to enter the Red level on the state’s COVID-19 dial on Jan. 11.
With restaurants entering Orange-level restrictions allowing indoor dining, the attorney for the Pitkin County Restaurant Alliance said Monday the organization has not decided on its next step regarding litigation originally intended to undo the Board of Health’s Red order.
“The Alliance is of course happy to see a return to level Orange and will analyze how this welcome change which should have happened much sooner affects the pending litigation,” attorney Chris Bryan said in a statement issued on the alliance’s behalf. “We thank the thousands of community members who support the ongoing efforts of the Pitkin County Restaurant Alliance.”