Thread by @CityofDenver

Live Now: @MayorHancock & @DDPHE provides an update on Denver’s response to #COVID19, including our position on @CDPHE's Safer at Home Dial following several wks of increasing avg daily cases, positivity rates & hospitalizations.

Watch Live at:

➡️ fb.watch/1o4V9_g1je/

Last night, we received notice from @CDPHE. Due to the dramatic rise in our average daily case rates, positivity rate and hospitalizations, Denver will be moved backwards on the state’s dial system to Safer at Home Level 3.

Per @CDPHE, the Level 3 capacity restrictions are now in effect for Denver, and we will work to implement this State order in the best way we can to protect our residents and mitigate the impacts on our hard-pressed businesses.

The number are the numbers and they don’t lie. We have all seen a similar resurgence of infections across the country, and across the world.

If there had been a national strategy, instead of a piecemeal approach where states like Colorado took this seriously and others took the approach of the White House, pretending there was no pandemic, the story might be different today.

Despite our best efforts and the fact that most Denverites are dutifully wearing face coverings, practicing social distancing, postponing family gatherings, and otherwise making sacrifices to keep our community safer, Denver is not an island.

Denver is the capital and largest city of a state visited every day, and we cannot control what our near or far neighbors may be doing.

.@MayorHancock does not believe this is Denver’s failing. He believes it is rather a failing by those who still refuse to believe in science and those who do not take the virus seriously.

Here are just some of the capacity limits Denver needs to enact in order to comply with the Level 3 State order:

➡️Restaurants, retail businesses & offices will have their 50% capacity cut in half.
➡️Indoor events now have a 25-person cap, & outdoor events have a 75-person cap.
➡️Gatherings in spaces not currently under capacity restrictions are limited to five unrelated people.

To get back to Safer at Home Level 2, we MUST reduce our average daily cases, positivity, and hospitalization rate back to the levels allowable for it, and then hold at those reduced numbers for two weeks. So, we could be here for a little while.

This does not impact @DenverElections vote centers. Vote Centers are all safe, socially distant environments where masks are required.

Here’s what I hope every Denver resident will hear from us: if you contract COVID-19, at that moment, you have no way of knowing if you will just get mild symptoms, or if the virus will end up putting you on a ventilator in the ICU.

If you are positive for COVID-19, you can spread the virus to others, even if you are asymptomatic.

During that time, you have no way of knowing, absolutely none, if the people you infect will get mild symptoms or end up in the hospital right along with you.

There’s no political posturing here. This isn’t fear-mongering. This is just how viruses work.

The people who are making this about politics, or who are willfully ignoring the science, thinking it’s not going to happen to them, going about their day because they think this isn’t a big deal: we are seeing the results of their actions now.

Since March, we’ve been pushing a boulder up hill, slowly making progress at getting back to normal. It has taken every one of us doing some of the pushing. That boulder just rolled back down on us because some people decided they didn’t want to push any more.

A lot of people have put a lot of hard work and made a lot of sacrifices to suppress the spread of this virus in our community.

Folks have put a lot of the aspects of their daily lives on hold to get this virus under control.

Businesses have faced a lot of hardships, bordering on going out of business altogether, to keep their doors open.

Families’ health is at risk. People’s livelihoods are at risk. Our kid’s success in school is at risk.

Because some people didn’t take this situation seriously, we ALL have to take a step back now.

If we are going to make it through this -if we are going to get anywhere close to normal in the near future - we ALL have a responsibility to make it happen.

We CAN get this back under control, but it’s going to take more now to do it.

Thankfully, there is a bright spot in this: the variances that have been granted by the State for capacity at places like our arts and cultural institutions will remain in place.

Now speaking: Executive Director of @DDPHE, Bob McDonald.

Denver's #COVID19 metrics are trending in the wrong direction:

#Denver dials back to Safer at Home Level 3, per @CDPHE's State Dial:

We are seeing an increase in ALL age groups. Please continue to wear a face mask to stop the spread of #COVID19.

#COVID19 case and hospitalization rates are up:

This has to stop. Not everyone recovers easily.

Flu vs #COVID19: Let's get the record straight. COVID-19 had a much higher transmission rate.

We can turn this around if everyone complies:

To close, we will remind everyone: gatherings in spaces not currently under capacity restrictions are limited to five unrelated people.

If you are with other people who aren’t your family, you must wear a face covering, whether you are indoors or outside.

If your business falls under the new capacity restrictions, please take steps now to meet those requirements.

.@DDPHE will be increasing enforcement of those activities that are prohibited under city and state public health orders.

Our tolerance for violating the public health orders will have to be, unfortunately, very limited. This is about saving lives.

Again, the election will not be impacted by the restrictions put in place today.

We encourage voters to fill out their ballot at home and use one of the 24-hour drop boxes or drive-thrus around the city to drop it off. Find a location at denvergov.org/content/denver…

If you need a ballot, @MileHighClerk offers curbside pick-up at designated locations. If you want to vote in person, Voter Service & Polling Centers are open from 8am–6pm this week. Voters will be required to wear a mask & practice social distancing. denvergov.org/content/denver…

Watch today's full announcement about the City and County of Denver moving to the more restrictive Safer at Home Dial Level 3 on YouTube at