Dial retired

On April 16, the COVID-19 Dial evolved into Public Health Order 20-38: Limited COVID-19 Restrictions, which allows counties to implement regulations at the local level while still maintaining some limited requirements across the state. Counties may use the statewide dial framework as a model for implementing their own regulations.

The Board of Phillips County Commissioners voted to lift the mask requirement at the local level on April 9, meaning they are now only required in the following settings:

— Preschool through grade 12 schools (including extracurricular activities), child care centers and services, and indoor children’s camps.

— Public areas of state government facilities, and areas in state government facilities where members of the public come into contact with state government employees.

— Congregate care facilities, including nursing facilities, assisted living residences, intermediate care facilities and group homes.

— Prisons.

— Jails.

— Emergency medical and other health care settings (including hospitals, ambulance service centers, urgent care centers, non-ambulatory surgical structures, clinics, doctors’ offices and non-urgent care medical structures).

­— Personal services, as defined by Public Health Order 20-36.

— Limited health care settings, as defined by PHO 20-36.

The other northeast Colorado counties of Logan, Morgan, Sedgwick, Washington and Yuma have also indicated that they will not have local orders in place.

“We want local governments to be able to move nimbly, creating local protocols where necessary to protect their communities, and we will support them when they do,” said Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan.

According to a recent survey of local public health agencies conducted by CDPHE, many local governments will go above and beyond these state measures. More than half (51.5%) of the local public health agencies that responded plan to have a public health order in place.

Of those, 36% plan to have a modified dial or other local order, 24% plan on staying in level green, 12% in level blue and the rest have other plans for mitigation efforts.

“We believe protocols at the local level are an appropriate path — allowing us to balance the need for economic recovery and the need to slow transmission — two things that have a tremendous impact on overall public health,” Hunsaker Ryan added.

The dial framework standardized the levels of openness or restrictions on a county level, based on the metrics of disease transmission, the level of local testing, and hospitalizations. It allowed Colorado to tailor its response on a county level, recognizing that conditions vary locally.

With increased vaccination rates and less threat to hospital capacity, the state’s role in continuing to mandate statewide restrictions is lessening and the role of local communities to regulate and manage the virus is increasing.

The Colorado dial will remain as guidance to counties, and the state still strongly recommends that businesses and other entities follow best practices for preventing the spread of COVID-19.