Media Contact: Tracy Trulove
tracy.trulove@pitkincounty.com
Oct. 6, 2020
Pitkin County Adopts CDPHE’s COVID-19 state Dial with New Public Health Order
COVID-19 website redesigned to support changes
PITKIN COUNTY-The Pitkin County Board of Health voted to align the Pitkin County Public Health Order, effective tomorrow, Oct. 7, with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s AMENDED PUBLIC HEALTH ORDER 20-35 SAFER AT HOME DIAL(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wRxIxSUPE7NSQKf0wnr5P7BB2PAl9h_k/view), with some additional inclusions which capture our unique community.
As part of this alignment, the Board also voted to adopt CDPHE’s Colorado COVID-19 Dial. Similar to the locally developed Coronameter, it is a framework for utilizing data to evaluate risk and determine levels of “openness” in the community. The dial has five levels ranging from ‘protect our neighbors’ to ‘stay at home’. The metrics used to define the levels are new cases, percent positivity and impact on hospitalizations. Pitkin County will move between levels based on the metrics (as outlined above) and will work with the state to ensure unique factors are considered.
In addition to the three state-required metrics, Pitkin County Public Health will continue to closely monitor additional local data, including community spread, out-of-jurisdiction cases and testing turnaround, to evaluate the spread of disease transmission in our community and will include these additional metrics on the covid19.pitkincounty.com website in the coming weeks.
This follows an effort to align with the state on the sector-specific guidelines and restrictions to provide the most consistent, straight-forward information possible to businesses and individuals. This includes gyms, restaurants, retail, places of worship, offices, bars and more.
The most notable difference is around event restrictions. Pitkin County previously allowed for a maximum of 50 people for indoor/outdoor events with a required safety plan. Pitkin County will be adopting the state guidelines under current Level 2, which allows for a maximum of 100 people (per room) for indoor events and 175 people (per designated activity or area) for outdoor. All events must still submit an Event Safety Plan. Personal gatherings remain limited to 10 people or less.
By adopting the state Dial and associated guidelines and restrictions, the new Pitkin County Public Health Order simplifies local requirements and adopts stricter provisions when it comes to:
Requiring event and business safety plans
All residents, non-residents and visitors are required to follow local isolation and quarantine orders
Cooperation with case investigation and contact tracing
Visitors are required to be symptom-free for 10 days prior to traveling to Pitkin County
Face coverings are mandatory for everyone over 2 years old and must be worn outside whenever there is a risk of being within 6 feet of another person who is not of the same household.
Pitkin County has also launched a redesign of the COVID-19 website to include easily accessible information to the state guidance and state dial. The goal is to make sure the community is well-informed about the ever-changing restrictions and requirements around the virus and the current status of the disease in our community. This includes an immense amount of information from CDPHE and Pitkin County Public Health (local statistics, how/when to get tested, business guidance) as well as valuable resources from Human Services and their network of partners (food, economic and mental health resources)