While Colorado's coronavirus rules are set to expire this week, local officials don't know what baseline state rules will take their place in El Paso County, making it difficult for businesses and others to plan.
The rules that govern occupancy in restaurants, gyms and other venues are changing because the state is phasing out its color-coded dial in order to give counties more control. El Paso County and the Colorado Springs have no plans to implement additional local restrictions, unlike Denver metro counties.
State health department officials say some baseline rules will stay in place, but they have provided almost no details. The new state rules could take effect Saturday, city spokeswoman Jamie Fabos said.
The lack of information from the state has made it tough to prepare for new rules, El Paso County Commissioner Longinos Gonzalez said.
"It is frustrating to see (Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment) and the governor give last minute changes," he said.
If the new rules were released a few days before they were set to take effect, businesses and local officials would be better prepared to implement them, he said.
"It doesn’t allow us the flexibility to react," he said.
Multiple Gazette inquiries asking for additional detail about the new rules garnered the same answer from the state health department.
"The state will be providing a 'base layer' of protection through an order to address mass gatherings and other indoor high-risk settings, as well as a mask order," the state said. No other additional detail was provided. The city expects the rules to govern indoor events of 500 people or more, and stadium events will need to seek a waiver at the county or state level, Fabos said.
El Paso County Public Health spokesman Michelle Hewitt said once details are released, the agency will provide technical assistance to businesses and others.
Some counties, including some Denver, are adopting the state's dial at the local level. But Denver will be downgrading its level on the dial, effectively loosening restrictions and returning occupancy at restaurants and gyms to 100%, officials announced Wednesday.
Much of the Denver-metro area and El Paso County are in level yellow on the dial, which is a mid-level for occupancy limits. For example, retail shops can have 50% capacity and restaurants are allowed to be 50% occupied or have 150 people with social distancing in level yellow.
Denver is moving itself to level blue, returning occupancy to 100% with social distancing.
When asked why Colorado Springs or El Paso County won't adopt the dial like other counties, Fabos said, in part: "We want to allow people and businesses to make decisions based on their own level of comfort and risk. The city, together with El Paso County Health, will continue to monitor our hospitalization numbers as we continue to encourage everyone 16 and older to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible. If the number of hospitalized COVID patients increased to the point that health care to other patients was impacted, restrictions would be reintroduced."
Dirk Draper, president and CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber & Economic Development Corporation, said his organization trusts the city and county to manage the pandemic.
"With or without baseline requirements, most businesses understand the importance of following public health guidelines and taking a holistic approach, including washing hands, masking up, social distancing and so forth," Draper said.
The move away from a state-led approach to less restrictive rules is set to happen as hospitalizations are rising, highly transmissible variants are becoming more common, and researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health are predicting an increase statewide in hospitalizations and deaths if COVID-19 restrictions are loosened. The researchers recommended leaving current rules in place through mid-May, in a report released Tuesday.
Denver's public health executive director, Bob McDonald, said Tuesday the reopening should be phased, but because vaccination efforts have protected the most vulnerable and hospitals have sufficient capacity, "150 cases now is not the same as 150 cases" last year and mortality rates are very low, he said.
Likewise, El Paso County's deaths per 1,000 in March were the lowest they have been since the beginning of the pandemic, Hewitt said.
"The strategy for vaccine rollout was intentionally designed to protect the elderly and those most at risk for severe illness. Early data is indicating that the public health strategy is working," she said.
She encouraged younger age groups to get vaccinated now since they are more likely to be hospitalized.
In El Paso County, 2,659 people have tested positive since April 1, and 1,919 cases are considered active, county public health data shows. Hospitalizations have been ticking up in the county, and the percentage of people testing positive in the county is 7.22%. The World Health Organization recommends communities achieve less than 5% of people test positive before reopening.
The Gazette's Seth Klamann contributed to this story.
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