Arvada Coronavirus Update: 57 New Cases Reported

ARVADA, CO — Over the past two weeks, 57 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Arvada, according to the latest public health data. Since early August, the city has seen a decrease in the number of bi-weekly cases reported.

As of Monday, there have been 990 cases on the Jeffco side of Arvada since the outbreak began, and at least 24 cases on the Adams County side, public health agencies confirmed.

The rate of infection per 1,000 residents in Arvada is 8.44, up from 8.29 a week ago, according to Jeffco Public Health.

Coronavirus cases in neighboring areas:

Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, there have been 8,103 cases of the coronavirus in Adams County, and 5,146 cases in Jefferson County.

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Between July 5 and July 18, 486 cases were confirmed in Jefferson County, and the state warned Jeffco officials that they were at risk of losing the variance. But since then, coronavirus case rates have gone down in the county, public health data shows.

When the county's first variance request was approved in early June, officials were given a threshold limit of 580 cases for a two-week period.

"We are hopeful that — as long as cases continue to decline or stabilize — we may be able to hold on to our Jefferson County variance," county officials said in mid-August.

A variance is a leniency granted to businesses and churches that eases restrictions if the county proves that cases are under a certain level. If Jeffco loses its variance, some businesses would be forced to scale back their services, and others may have to close. The current variance allows more lenient capacity limits for group gatherings, event centers, places of worship, malls, brewpubs, distilleries and other venues.

Over the past week, 2,212 new cases have been reported in Colorado. The state has seen a small uptick in cases over the past two weeks, which is partly due to college students returning to campuses, Gov. Jared Polis said in a news conference Tuesday.

"The worry is that the college transmission leads to community transmission," Polis said.

As of Monday, 61,699 people have been infected with the coronavirus in Colorado among 786,511 people who have been tested since the outbreak began, health officials confirmed. Around 7,240 people have been hospitalized, and the death toll has reached 1,894 after 28 people died over the past week.