"Judges are waiving penalties, often for defendants who work full-time or have other means of paying for their fees, leaving taxpayers short-changed," DeFoor said.
For the fifth consecutive week, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has added more than 200 new entries to its list of outbreaks related to COVID-19, and an increasing number have tallied death tolls higher than since the early days of the pandemic.
An extreme example is Windsor Healthcare, a skilled-nursing facility in Weld County. The CDPHE has confirmed sixty positive staff cases, 85 positive resident cases and seven resident deaths.
The CDPHE considers an entity an outbreak after two or more COVID-19 cases among residents, staffers or other people connected to a specific location are confirmed within a fourteen-day period, or two or more cases of respiratory illness with an onset of symptoms within a fourteen-day period are paired with at least one additional COVID-19 diagnosis. The vast majority of businesses and facilities identified as outbreaks remain open while working with the department to monitor symptoms and prevent future infections.