Jeffco Public Health Extends Stay-At-Home Order To May 8

JEFFERSON COUNTY, CO — Jefferson County Public Health has is extending the stay-at-home order for the county through May 8, officials announced Friday. The extended order includes a revision to support non-critical businesses.

"This extension will help protect our community from COVID-19 as we continue to work aggressively to reduce the high rates of the virus in our county and across the Denver Metro Area," officials said in a public notice.

The difference between the statewide stay-at-home order and Jefferson County's order is the allowance of non-critical businesses to offer curbside delivery of products, health officials said. The pick up of the products is now included in the order as "necessary travel."

“Our goal has always been to reduce the severity of this crisis with as short a disruption to people’s economic livelihoods as possible. We hope this update to enable non-Critical Businesses to begin operating in this manner helps us start to get back on our feet,” Mark Johnson, Jefferson County Public Health's executive director, said in a statement.

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Jefferson County, unlike some areas of the state that have less population density, has not yet seen a decline in daily COVID-19 cases, health officials said. The county also lacks sufficient testing capacity or data about community compliance.

“No two communities in Colorado are the same, and each community has different needs as we look to the next stages of response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have to consider what impact opening too soon could have on those in our community and region, and take a phased, science-based approach to reopening,” Johnson said.

“By working together across the heavily-populated Denver Metro Area, where we have much higher rates of COVID-19, we can reduce some of the confusion and most importantly, protect the health of our residents.”

Extending the order will give Jeffco health officials more time to develop and implement strategies in partnership with the business community on how to safely reopen, as well as to communicate with the public about the most effective ways to protect themselves in the face of a rapidly changing pandemic, health officials said.

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