{"id":47593,"date":"2021-04-03T00:20:51","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T06:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-to-ease-mask-mandate-biden-asks-to-stay-the-course\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:39:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:39:37","slug":"colorado-to-ease-mask-mandate-biden-asks-to-stay-the-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-to-ease-mask-mandate-biden-asks-to-stay-the-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado to ease mask mandate; Biden asks to stay the course"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Where
Where Colorado counties were on the dial system as of Friday.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gov. Jared Polis on Friday finalized his decision to ease the state\u2019s mask mandate starting on Saturday, allowing people in about half of the state\u2019s 64 counties, but only representing a fraction of Colorado\u2019s population, to ditch their face coverings in the vast majority of public indoor places.<\/p>\n

A new executive order requires people who live in counties that are under level-green restrictions on Colorado\u2019s coronavirus dial to wear masks only in K-12 schools, child care centers, indoor children\u2019s camps, public-facing state government facilities, congregate care facilities, and prisons and jails. Masks will also still be required in health care settings \u2014 including hospitals, urgent-care centers and doctors\u2019 offices \u2014 as well as at personal-services businesses, like hair and nail salons.<\/p>\n

People who live in counties that are in levels blue, yellow, orange, red or purple will have to wear masks only when they are gathering with 10 or more unrelated, unvaccinated people in indoor public settings. They must also wear masks in all of the places that people who live in level-green counties are still required to wear face coverings, regardless of how many people are present.<\/p>\n

The mask-wearing requirements only apply to people who are age 11 and older.<\/p>\n

There were 31 counties in level-green status as of Friday, including all of the counties in the San Luis Valley and most on the Eastern Plains. Several counties in the southwest and northwest corners are also in level green.<\/p>\n

The level-green counties are home to about 238,000 Coloradans. More than 5.5. million people live in the rest of Colorado\u2019s counties.<\/p>\n

Counties and cities where the statewide mask order is being eased can still impose local mask orders themselves. Businesses can also require customers to wear masks. Businesses can also require customers to wear masks.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis holds up a U.S. Census mask as he speaks to reporters at the governor&#x2019;s mansion in downtown Denver on Thursday, June 11, 2020.<\/span>Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, for instance, says the city\u2019s mask mandate will remain in effect until at least early May, no matter what the state does.<\/p>\n

Despite the new order, the state is still encouraging people to voluntarily wear masks in any setting where they are interacting with people outside of their own household.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to the day when immunity reaches a level that we no longer have to wear masks,\u201d Polis said in a written statement on Friday. \u201cRight now across our state, 1 in 207 people are currently contagious with COVID-19, and only an estimated 27% of Coloradans are already immune through either vaccination or prior infection. In the meantime, we must continue practicing vigilance by wearing masks, especially if you aren\u2019t yet fully vaccinated, practicing social distancing when in public and in the company of people with unknown vaccine status. This modified mask order is a step towards the light at the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The changes to the mask mandate, the first since the requirement was enacted by Polis in July, come as coronavirus vaccinations were opened on Friday to all people age 16 and older. Just over 1 million Coloradans had been fully vaccinated as of Friday.<\/p>\n

Polis is easing the statewide mask mandate even as President Joe Biden and the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have begged states not to roll back face-covering requirements and other COVID-19 restrictions. Coronavirus cases are surging again across the U.S., and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who leads the CDC, said this week that she was \u201cscared\u201d by the current trend.<\/p>\n

Biden has been critical of states \u2014 like Texas, Mississippi, Florida and Arkansas \u2014 that are rolling back COVID-19 restrictions, saying their leaders are showing \u201cNeanderthal thinking.\u201d Most of the states that have fully dropped their mask mandates are led by Republican governors. Polis is a Democrat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a big mistake. I hope everyone has realized right now these masks make a difference,\u201d Biden said last month of states rolling back restrictions. \u201cWe are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way in which we are able to get vaccines in people\u2019s arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polis, when asked if Biden specifically asked Colorado not to ease its mask mandate, said \u201cI don\u2019t think that they\u2019ve asked us not to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor pointed out that the statewide mask mandate will be in effect for at least another month. \u201cIt takes a slightly different form in different parts of the state,\u201d Polis said in an interview with The Colorado Sun on Friday morning. \u201cOur entire state will have mask-wearing requirements in certain settings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The updated mask mandate will be in effect until May 2, at which point \u201cwe will reevaluate,\u201d said Jill Hunsaker Ryan, who leads the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Jonathan Samet, the dean of the Colorado School of Public Health, speaks during a July 9, 2020, news conference with Gov. Jared Polis at the governor&#x2019;s mansion.<\/span>Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In response to Polis\u2019 mask-mandate change, the health department overseeing La Plata and Archuleta counties on Friday announced it would be enacting its own mask mandate requiring people to wear face coverings in all public indoor settings unless everyone is vaccinated.<\/p>\n

Polis also is planning to do away with the state\u2019s dial system on April 16. That\u2019s \u201cassuming we don\u2019t see a dramatic increase in cases,\u201d Hunsaker Ryan said.<\/p>\n

Counties will be allowed to continue using the dial or enact their own public-health orders on April 16, though there still will be public health restrictions imposed by the state for indoor settings where large numbers of people gather.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not quite ready to mix a lot of people together in an indoor setting,\u201d Hunsaker Ryan said.<\/p>\n

A \u201csnap-back\u201d provision would force counties back into the dial system if their cases increase dramatically and if their hospitals are at danger of reaching capacity.<\/p>\n

Public health officials warn that Colorado remains in a dangerous place in the pandemic, with too few people vaccinated to guarantee the state will not see another big spike in infections if people lower their guard.<\/p>\n

After a dramatic decline to start the year, Colorado\u2019s case trends have leveled off, with about 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 identified each day. That number is higher than at any other point in the pandemic except for the peaks of late-fall and early-winter. Dr. Jonathan Samet, the dean of the Colorado School of Public Health, called it \u201cthe worrisome plateau\u201d in an online commentary this week.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Sun last week, Samet said Colorado can not afford to let up now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not time to declare victory and say we\u2019re back to 2019,\u201d Samet said. \u201cI think that\u2019s critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samet said mask-wearing, hand-washing and other social distancing measures remain important. But he also said, at this point, it\u2019s not clear how many people are taking these precautions purely because of a government requirement to do them \u2014 meaning it\u2019s unclear how much impact dropping the mandates will have on people\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of those measures may stay with us awhile,\u201d Samet said. \u201cMaybe not by mandate, but because people want to protect themselves and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infections are rising in some parts of Colorado.<\/p>\n

Samet leads a team that creates mathematical models to predict the course of the pandemic in the state. The latest version of one model shows infections currently increasing in three regions: the Northeast region, including Larimer, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld and Yuma counties; the East Central region, including Cheyenne, Elbert, Kit Carson and Lincoln counties; and the Central region, including Chaffee, El Paso, Lake, Park and Teller counties.<\/p>\n

In the East Central region one in every 44 people is currently estimated to be infected, according to the model.<\/p>\n

But rates of new infection may no longer be a reliable measurement of how well Colorado is doing against the virus. Polis has said that around 70% of Coloradans 60 and older have been vaccinated. That population makes up nearly 90% of the state\u2019s COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Deaths among people infected with COVID-19 have continued to fall, even as infection rates have leveled out. The number of people dying each week with COVID-19 \u2014 around 20 to 25 people \u2014 is similar to rates seen during the summer. And people 60 and older are making up a smaller proportion of the deaths \u2014 about 64% in figures from early March.<\/p>\n

In nursing homes, which have accounted for about a quarter of the state\u2019s coronavirus deaths, infections have dropped dramatically after vaccinations. At the peak of Colorado\u2019s December spike, the state\u2019s nursing homes reported more than 700 cases and more than 100 deaths among residents per week, according to data collected by the federal government.<\/p>\n

In preliminary figures through the third week of March, nursing homes reported 18 cases and three deaths so far.<\/p>\n

Still, Samet said, there are a lot of people in their 40s and 50s waiting to be vaccinated. And, even if a coronavirus infection is not fatal, it can still cause long-term damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we still have a group at risk for more severe illness and hospitalization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Samet said it is unlikely Colorado would run the risk of overwhelming hospital capacity if cases did surge again, since so many vulnerable Coloradans have been vaccinated and the inoculations appear to be doing a good job of preventing severe illness from all variants of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, realistically, we are beyond those scenarios,\u201d Samet said.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/em><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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