Denver-area superintendents and Governor Polis detail plan for return to in-person learning
Education leaders say enhanced safety protocols are foundation of return to the classroom
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and last updated 2021-01-05 15:12:17-05
DENVER â On Tuesday, Governor Jared Polis, metro-area superintendents, and Denver Public Health officials said science affirms students can safely return to in-person learning with a plan for enhanced safety protocols.
The plan for a January return is part of Polis Roadmap to In-Person Learning and according to Denver Public executive director, Bill Burman, the plan is a layered safety approach. This concept of what we called layered protection, works. No single layer is adequate by itself but when we add them all up, they can provide a high degree of protection from transmission, said Burman.
Colorado health officials, providers discuss first few days of administering COVID vaccine
Colorado health officials, including the state s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eric France, discussed the progress so far in distributing and administering the COVID-19 vaccine to health care providers.
and last updated 2021-01-05 15:11:15-05
DENVER â As of Wednesday, roughly 860 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Colorado and state health officials said health care workers are looking forward to being inoculated. Everybody s so excited. There s like this energized feeling throughout the building now where everybody is just feeling like maybe there s light at the end of the tunnel coming said Dr. Michelle Barron, the UCHealth Infection Prevention senior medical director.
The data comes from a report submitted by the City and County of Denver in response to a federal lawsuit it s facing over homeless encampment sweeps during the pandemic. People experiencing homelessness are two to four times more likely to have diabetes, cardiovascular disease and respiratory conditions. All of those can make it much more likely that COVID is going to impact them negatively, says Gregory Whitman, a public health physician who will be testifying in court on behalf of the plaintiffs suing Denver over homeless encampment sweeps.
But while those living outdoors may be in a vulnerable position, shelters aren t necessarily safer during a pandemic. We’re continuing to see pretty consistently lower rates in the encampments, says Rowan. When we tested in the summer at the city’s request, we found that one encampment near Stout Street Health Center had no cases of COVID out of fifty. When we tested in encampments in front of the Capitol and around Morey Middle Scho
Sam s No. 3 received an early Christmas lump of coal from the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment on December 10, in the form of a placard on the front door closing down the diner because of supposed violations of COVID-related outdoor seating. That seating was on a temporary enclosed patio that the restaurant says was adequately ventilated but the city disagreed after seeing customers dining at two tables in the area.
The closure didn t last long, though. Sam Armatas, co-owner and grandson of the Sam Armatas who opened the original Sam s No. 3 in 1927, says he has been working with the health department all day to come to an agreement that would allow his restaurant to reopen. And the department listened; here s the statement they sent us at 3:19 p.m. December 11:
For months, we ve regularly reported on the number of COVID-19 cases across the Mile High City as tracked by Denver Public Health and the increase over the past month or so has definitely been the largest to date in most locations. Cases in many neighborhoods have doubled or even tripled, making it ever more difficult for the average resident to avoid coming down with the novel coronavirus.
DPH shares the data on its Denver COVID-19 Data Summary page, which is updated by 6:30 p.m. daily. As of late December 10, the agency calculates 41,624 COVID-19 cases and 592 deaths in the city.
Among the key statistics is the viral case rate per 1,000 individuals. According to Denver Public Health spokesperson Jennifer Fine, this figure is determined by calculating the number of people infected with COVID-19 during a specific time frame relative to the total population of that geographic area. If you see a case rate of 200/100,000 thousand, that means that for every 100,000 people that live