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SHORT THREAD: When Gov. Jared Polis does a press conference lately, there’s always a question about if he’ll order people to stay at home again as COVID cases skyrocket.
It turns out county public health directors are asking the same question...
It turns out county public health directors are asking the same question...
It’s a tough call. Stay at home orders have devastating economic consequences.
To provide some certainty, the state came up with the “dial framework.” Basically, if the metrics get bad counties will be forced into increasing restrictions, including lockdown.
But ...
To provide some certainty, the state came up with the “dial framework.” Basically, if the metrics get bad counties will be forced into increasing restrictions, including lockdown.
But ...
No county has been moved to the stay at home level despite a rapid increase in cases and increasing strain on hospitals.
So county public health sent a letter to Polis staff last week asking the state to follow its own framework, and impose the restrictions.
So county public health sent a letter to Polis staff last week asking the state to follow its own framework, and impose the restrictions.
“Like you and our county leaders, we would like to keep our community sectors and businesses as open as possible, but worry about delaying the “strong medicine” of a Level change until it is too late to be effective.”
How bad is the situation in Colorado? I interviewed Dr. John Douglas the head of Tri-County Health yesterday, who signed the letter, along with other major metro public health officials and the state public health director association (CALPHO).
COVID case volumes are so high that mitigation measures including contact tracing don’t work as well. There are simply too many people to contact about their contacts.
“We just can't keep up with that at this point,” Douglas said.
“We just can't keep up with that at this point,” Douglas said.
Here’s what the governor’s office said. They note that locals can impose their own stay at home orders if needed.
The problem though is stay at home orders are unpopular, and in many cases county public health directors get death threats for imposing new restrictions. There are complaints that orders are imposed by unelected bureaucrats.
So instead the counties issue marginal orders about curfews (which they admit there’s little evidence for) and limiting sports gatherings.
Meanwhile, the third wave is here and many worry it will only get worse as cold weather and holidays force people indoors.
Meanwhile, the third wave is here and many worry it will only get worse as cold weather and holidays force people indoors.
