Bonnie Lehman, center, owner of Arapahoe Cafe in Dillon, serves food to Clara McClure, left, and Kodie Sheppard on May 31. Summit County officials are discussing possible restrictions for this summer, including a proposal to decrease the amount of physical distancing required on restaurant patios.
Jason Connolly / Summit Daily archives
With the state’s COVID-19 dial system expected to expire later this month, Summit County leaders sat down Thursday to discuss local restrictions that could help move the county toward what they called a “cautious reopening.”
At a Board of Health meeting, local officials presented the Summit Board of County Commissioners with a proposed first draft of a new public health order
jdejong@summitdaily.com
Summit County will be moved from level yellow to level orange on the state’s COVID-19 dial beginning Wednesday, April 7. The move will decrease capacities at most businesses.
Graphic from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Summit County officials expressed their frustrations in a Board of Health meeting Tuesday that the state would be moving the county backward on the COVID-19 dial.
The move from level yellow to level orange restrictions takes effect at 6 a.m. Wednesday, reducing capacity at most business types to 25%. Businesses in the 5 Star State Certification Program can operate under level yellow restrictions, which generally allow up to 50% capacity with some limits.
Photo by Liz Copan / Studio Copan
Summit County still hasn’t received word from the state that the community is headed to level orange on the state’s COVID-19 dial this weekend, but the area’s trends have continued to move in the wrong direction.
Public Health Director Amy Wineland provided officials with an update on the county’s COVID-19 situation during a joint meeting with the Summit Board of County Commissioners on Thursday afternoon, noting that Summit County’s numbers have returned to January levels over the past couple of weeks.
Summit County has had 154 positive COVID-19 cases over the past week, an average of 22 per day, according to Wineland. The county’s seven-day cumulative incidence rate is more than 403 new cases per 100,000 residents, well above the threshold for level orange. The county’s seven-day average positivity rate is at 10.31%, which falls in level red.
Spring break leads to rising case counts in Summit County summitdaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from summitdaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Summit County reported 51 new cases of COVID-19 over the week, according to the county’s coronavirus webpage.
The total number of cases among residents stands at 3,110. No hospitalizations among residents were reported over the week, keeping the total number since March 5, 2020, at 128.
Also this week, the county reported two additional deaths from the virus, which occurred Feb. 5 and 6. No additional information about the deaths was provided, and the total number of deaths since the pandemic began is unclear.
On the state’s COVID-19 dial, the county has remained within level yellow. According to the state’s dial dashboard
, the county was reporting 158.2 new cases per 100,000 people as of 4 p.m. Friday. That number is down 41.9 cases per 100,000 people from last week and falls within level yellow on the dial.