DENVER—Colorado’s COVID-19 restrictions will transition from ‘Safer at Home’ to ‘Protect our Neighbors’ later this week. The less onerous phase will allow individual counties to make decisions about reopening businesses or social gatherings as long as local hospitals can respond to a resurgence in cases. Governor Jared Polis says it’s critical that local health officials have the capability to stop an outbreak at the site level whether it’s at a school, a factory or a church. While this is encouraging news, Polis says no one should get a false sense of security. He says it’s likely that COVID-19 cases will increase at some point either later this summer or in the fall during the annual flu season. Polis says the ‘Protect our Neighbors’ guidelines will be finalized this week and will be subject to public feedback.
