Boulder County and the Denver-metro area are seeing a decrease in COVID-19 cases. The trend has prompted Gov. Jared Polis to ask the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to move counties in the red level on the state’s COVID dial dashboard to less-restrictive orange status starting Monday.
The change would be good news for businesses. At the orange level, restaurants can reopen to in-person dining at 25% capacity or 50 people, and gyms can increase their capacity to 25% or 25 people. Gatherings of up to 10 people from no more than two households also are allowed and offices can increase capacity to 25% from 10%.
There is no official word yet on how Boulder County will transition to orange status on the dial.
“Unfortunately, we were not notified that Governor Polis was making this announcement (or even considering it) so we will need to meet over the weekend to determine our next steps,” Boulder County Public Health COVID-19 response public information officer Chana Goussetis said in an email Thursday. She said hopes to know more on Monday.
However, things are looking positive that Boulder County will experience a move on the dial. Before Polis announced his request, Boulder County Public Health Executive Director Jeff Zayach launched a Wednesday afternoon virtual COVID community update by saying, “the good news is that our data is continuing to look really great.”
Zayach said the county’s two-week cumulative incidence numbers stood at 347.2 cases per 100,000 people for the last 14 days, which is within the parameters for a move back to the orange level.
A similar trend is being seen across the Front Range, with COVID-19 data showing a significant decline in cases.
In a Facebook post Wednesday night, Polis stated “throughout this pandemic, we have had to walk a difficult line between the public health crisis and the economic crisis. In reviewing the data today, Colorado has been in a sustained decline for 13 days, and only 73% of ICU beds statewide are in use. This is a direct result of Coloradans stepping up and taking the steps to protect themselves and others.”
Boulder County has seen decline in hospitalizations but those who are being hospitalized fall into younger age groups, not just the 65 and older group, Zayach said in Wednesday’s community update.
“This is not just a disease that puts older folks in the hospital, it can put many of us in the hospital,” Zayach said.
Data collected by Boulder County indicates more people are staying at home, which Zayach credits for a decrease in cases across all age groups.
That data also shows a large number of cases are now concentrated in Longmont, a change from the fall when more cases were reported in the city of Boulder due to an outbreak on the University of Colorado campus, Zayach said.
As of Wednesday, 5,147 Longmont residents had tested positive for the virus compared to 5,597in Boulder, according to county data.
Countywide totals as of Thursday morning stood at 14,614 confirmed or probable cases, 413 hospitalizations and 182 deaths with COVID. Statewide, there were 330,859 cases, 18,502 hospitalizations, 3,901 deaths due to COVID and 4,750 deaths among those who tested positive, according to state data.
As the vaccine rolls out, Boulder County Public Health is encouraging everyone to get it when they can. The vaccine is being released in phases.
The first phase, 1A, focuses on high-risk health care workers, Indira Gujral, Boulder County Communicable Disease Control Division manager, said in Wednesday’s update. So far, the state has given out 74,000 doses, however, there are an estimated 350,000 people in this category, she said. Boulder County’s five hospitals have completed or are close to completing vaccination of employees who fall into the 1A group, she said.
Residents at long-term and skilled nursing facilities also are among the first to receive the vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control has partnered with Walgreens and CVS to provide vaccinations as facilities across the nation. In Colorado, 763 long-term care facilities and 227 skilled nursing facilities have received the vaccine since the campaign began on Dec. 28, according to Gujral’s presentation in Wednesday’s virtual update.
Boulder County is moving into vaccinating moderate-risk health care workers in group 1B, she said.
Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday updated the state’s vaccination priority list, moving teachers to the 1B group, along with people 70 and older, health care workers who don’t work directly with COVID patients, and first responders such as police and firefighters, and funeral workers.
First to receive the vaccine in group 1B will be health care workers who are not in direct contact with COVID-19 patients, first responders, correctional workers, funeral service providers and people older than 70, Gujral said. She estimates Boulder County has 20,000 to 30,000 people ages 70 and older.
Next in the 1B group to receive vaccines will be essential workers in education, food and agriculture, manufacturing, the U.S. Postal Service, public transit and specialized transit staff, grocery, public health, direct care providers to those experiencing homelessness, essential officials in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government and journalists, Gujral said.
The recent expansion of group 1B and the large number of people it includes will require planning that county health officials were not ready to talk about in Wednesday’s meeting.
“We are going to have to do a lot more planning” to vaccinate all of these people, Gujral said. “We are very limited on the doses we get, so we can have the best plans made but it is also going to be dependent on how many doses we are actually going to see.
Goussetis via email on Wednesday said, “We were just notified of the change to the 1B group today and will let the public know as soon as we have a plan for this large addition to Phase I (approximately 30,000 people over the age of 70). It is most likely that the vaccine will be available to most at a local pharmacy. When there is vaccine supply, we will notify the public on social media and through the news. Residents can follow us on social media or sign up for our news releases to be sure they’re notified: Facebook, Spanish Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and news releases.”
Gujral and Zayach said they hope to have a plan ready by the next weekly community update at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. That update also will include more information on when teachers will be vaccinated.
Phase 2 of vaccinations is expected to begin in the spring, when higher-risk individuals will be eligible for the vaccine. There are 2.7 million people included in this group, Gujral said. She said she expects the general public will be able to be vaccinated by summer.
“I think that here are some definite logistical challenges in recognizing that the vaccines have to be managed very differently. When you give out a vaccine you have to do a lot of observation of people who have received the vaccine to make sure that they’re not having side effects. So it is different when you say ‘get your flu shot,’ it’s a different type of approach. I don’t think it is going to take that long (to get everyone vaccinated),” Gujral said.
The largest hurdle to getting vaccines out, according to Gujral, is funding. She said health officials have been waiting on Congress to pass a bill supporting vaccine funding, which will allow public health agencies to add staff and supplies necessary to speed up vaccination opportunities.
Immunity provided by the vaccine can take weeks to appear so social distancing and mask wearing remain important to keep from unknowingly transmitting the disease, Gujral said.
Studies have shown that the Pfizer vaccine is 95% effective seven days after the second dose and the Moderna vaccine is 95% effective 14 days after the second dose. It is still unknown how long the vaccine will last, according to Dr. Christopher Urbina, a family physician and Boulder County Public Health medical officer.
Gujral encouraged people who are nervous about the vaccine to talk to their health care provider.
In response to attendees of Wednesday’s virtual update voicing concerns about the vaccine being mandated, Zayach said, “We are not looking at (the vaccine) as a requirement. It’s a new vaccine. We are strongly encouraging it. I think you will see that across the entire state, there is a campaign out there now for making sure that people are aware of the vaccine and that it has gone through approval and that we are encouraging people to do it. But there is no conversation at this point about mandating it.”
COVID data
For more information on Boulder County COVID cases, deaths, hospitalizations and trends, click here.
