Boulder County moves to Level Red COVID Restriction
By Vinny Lupo
Boulder County announced it will officially move to Level Red on Colorado’s COVID-19 dial beginning this Friday, Nov. 20. This change comes after the county recorded 208 new cases and 91 current hospitalizations, a single-day high.
There are an additional 14 counties that will be moving to Level Red later this week, including Jefferson and Denver counties. Level Red will no longer be the most extreme of restrictions, as the dial has been updated to include Level Purple, which if put in place would resemble the lockdowns in March and April. Colorado Governor Jared Polis said on Tuesday that this has been done to keep businesses open and to avoid an economic collapse.
“This updated dial was designed to indicate counties where there is severe risk of COVID-19 spreading rapidly, while allowing some businesses to remain open at very limited capacity,” said the state health department in a press release on Tuesday. “Level Purple will represent when hospital capacity risks being breached and most businesses and indoor services must be closed.”
Here are the resulting changes coming Friday that residents of Boulder County must be aware of:
- Personal gatherings of any size will not be permitted; gatherings of up to 10 people were allowed under Level Orange, where the county was previously at.
- Restaurants will no longer be able to have indoor dining, and open-air, outdoor seating will be permitted to groups from one household.
- Last call for alcohol sales has been moved from 10 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- Office and gym capacities have been reduced from 25% to 10%, while working from home is still highly recommended.
- Indoor seated and unseated events and entertainment will be closed, and outdoor seated events and entertainment will only allow 25% capacity, or a maximum of 75 people. Guests can only attend with members of their household and must maintain social distancing.
