Stay-at-home orders issued for 6 more Colorado counties
DENVER (AP) — Officials in six more Colorado counties issued stay-at-home orders affecting nearly 3 million people to help slow the spread of the coronavirus and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed by patients.
The orders for Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, Jefferson and Larimer counties take effect Thursday and will bring around half of Colorado's 5.7 million people under such as order.
Stay-at-home orders have taken effect in the Denver, Aspen and Telluride areas. Broomfield County is suburban Denver issued a notice that encourages people to stay in their homes as much as possible.
The latest round of mandatory orders in the Denver area contains a number of exemptions. Liquor stores and gun shops can remain open partly to prevent panic buying. People can still exercise outdoors and use parks but only in groups of four or less. Tennis courts, golf courses and basketball courts will be closed to prevent groups from gathering.
Businesses considered non-essential can only keep operating if employees work from home. Grocery and hardware stores, banks, laundromats and landscapers are among the businesses exempted. Child care centers can keep operating but only with groups of 10 children or less in rooms.
People did not seem to be taking previous warnings and actions, like the closure of restaurants, seriously, and false information, such as COVID-19 being akin to the flu, has persisted, Jefferson County Public Health executive director Mark Johnson said. He hopes the orders help make people realize how serious the outbreak is.
“This is truly the greatest public health crisis this nation has seen at least since 1918,” he said
As of Wednesday, the state had more than 1,000 cases of the virus and 20 people had died, according to the state health department.
In other developments:
— Medical staffers based at Colorado's Fort Carson are being deployed to Washington State to back up doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients in one of the nation's hardest-hit areas. More than 300 members of the 627th Hospital Center will head to Washington to provide supplemental routine and emergency medical care to help free up Washington providers to focus on detecting and treating patients believed to have been exposed to COVID-19, Fort Carson announced Tuesday.
Within hours of deploying, the unit is capable of establishing a 148-bed full-service hospital even in the most austere conditions, according to The Gazette of Colorado Springs. The hospitals can be in customized tents or repurposed civilian buildings.