Governor Polis April 18, 2020 UpdatesApril 18, 2020 Quick Links to Stay Up to Date Topline Update As of yesterday, we have 9,047 cases, 391 deaths, and 1,755 hospitalizations (858 are currently hospitalized; 203 were discharged in the last 24 hours) out of 43,307 completed tests. Our thoughts and our hearts go out to the impacted families and communities during these trying times. UPDATE to Public Health Order for Long Term Care Facilities We know that facilities that serve seniors are particularly vulnerable vectors for infection. That’s why in the first week of this crisis, we issued a public health order to prevent outbreaks that required that facilities restrict visitation and require screening for staff and visitors for symptoms of COVID-19 before they come to the facility, among other things like ensuring social distancing, taking isolation precautions for residents that need to be quarantined, increase effective communication between staff, residents and their families to ensure compliance, ensure adequate supply needs are met, ensure proper sanitation to prevent to spread of infection, notifying public health officials when a case is confirmed and requiring that all wear masks. Yesterday, the Governor announced that we are updating this public health order to require these long-term care facilities to develop a detailed isolation plan and submit that plan to our Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) by May 1st. With so many vulnerable individuals and frontline health care staff in close contact, we need to have better planning and better protections to stop the spread of the virus within these facilities. The Governor has also deployed the National Guard to conduct testing at three of the largest nursing homes in the state to prevent outbreaks, and we will be deploying additional testing resources and personnel to other facilities as needed. In early May, we expect there will be 200 beds in supplemental facilities that will be available for isolation of seniors if their facilities can not provide these beds with a proper level of isolation. The first beds identified for seniors are at St Anthony's North in Westminster. Furthermore, the administration will be more focused on education, training, and compliance in order to keep these vulnerable communities safe. Below is a video that our Colorado Department of Public Safety put together to illustrate what you can be doing to enact these protocols to ensure protection at facilities. NEW Executive Order that Requires Masks for Essential Workers In an effort to further protect workers and residents in senior living facilities, as well as workers in other essential occupations and the public at large, the Governor has issued a new executive order that will require workers in critical businesses and critical government functions where workers interact in close proximity with other employees or with the public. These include grocery store workers, staff at congregate care facilities, and the folks who are still going to work each day to protect our food supply, roads, public health, etc. Workers must wear a mask or non-medical cloth face covering that covers the nose and mouth while working, except when doing so would inhibit that individual’s health and wear gloves when in contact with customers or goods. Most employers and workers are already doing this and we salute them for their proactive steps to help us defeat this virus. But the more people wear masks at their critical workplaces, and the more people wear masks when going about their necessary errands, the more lives will be saved and the sooner we can get the economy growing again. COVID-19 Relief Fund Yesterday, the Governor announced that we are disbursing $4.8 million in our first round of grants from the COVID-19 Relief Fund. We’re funding 206 organizations across the state, going to organizations around the state working to serve:
Today the fund is at $12.2 million including $1.3 M from almost 7,000 donors. This includes a very generous gift of $1 million from Pinnacol Assurance. This week, CO Health Foundation stepped up to help with a $2 million dollar match challenge to kickoff the next phase of fundraising. The challenge is meant to inspire corporations, philanthropies and individual donors who can give a minimum gift of $10,000 to the fund. We are so grateful for their continued partnership and leadership to encourage other foundations, corporations and individuals to give for the first time or contribute an additional gift to support the important work of grantees across our state. Furthermore, Colorado Gives Day is coming up on May 5 which is a wonderful opportunity to give at helpcoloradonow.org. Thank you all for stepping up to do your part and keep Colorado strong. Unemployment Assistance Update COVID Health Equity Response Team On Monday we released racial data regarding positive COVID cases and deaths. The data showed that some communities of color are more likely to suffer from COVID. The Governor said that this was likely a proxy for other societal inequities because we know that people of color are statistically more likely to work jobs considered “essential” and are therefore at a higher risk of exposure, statistically less likely to have access to benefits like health insurance and paid sick leave and as a result, are statistically more likely to suffer from underlying health conditions that may worsen the symptoms of COVID-19. That is why the Governor announced that he is establishing the COVID Health Equity Response Team to address these inequities and ensure that all Coloradans, regardless of race or ethnicity, has access to the resources that they need to keep themselves healthy and safe. This team will be headed by Web Brown, the Director of the Office of Health Equity at CDPHE. The task force will work to:
REMINDER: Recreate in Your Own Area Impact on Rural Colorado We know that this crisis presents a unique challenge for our rural areas both from a public health perspective and an economic perspective. Right now this is hitting our urban centers fairly hard and specific mountain communities very hard. But a new report from the Council of State Governments details how this crisis is shaping up in our rural communities where we are likely to see larger numbers of uninsured individuals and families, less access to healthcare and hospitals where there are fewer providers because areas don’t benefit from the same economies of scale, greater at-risk population to COVID-19, poor connectivity, both from a transportation and a broadband perspective and a delayed economic hit that may last longer. We’re working with counties in every corner of our state to mitigate the impact of this deadly virus in every community. But no matter where you live in our state you must take this seriously and stay at home to stop the spread and save lives. The better we do this, the sooner we can go back to some level of normalcy. |
