Stay-At-Home Order Issued In Boulder County

Three public health departments, which serve more than two million residents across the metro Denver region, joined together to issue stay-at-home orders in their counties. The orders take effect Thursday at 8 a.m. and are expected to end April 17, health officials announced Wednesday morning.

The departments include Boulder County Public Health, Jefferson County Public Health and Tri-County Health Department (which serves Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties).

Just hours after their announcement, Gov. Jared Polis announced a stay-at-home order for all of Colorado.

John Douglas, executive director of Tri-County Health Department, said the counties "must take bold actions to stop the spread of this virus.”

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“With each passing day, we run a growing risk of greater transmission and illness and quickly overwhelming our hospitals, which are really a resource for our entire region and state," Douglas said in a statement. "When this happens, not everyone may get the care they need. It’s a real possibility in Colorado — and a situation which has already occurred in countries such as Italy — and which is threatening to happen in major U.S. cities in other areas of our country.

"We understand the toll that measures to address the pandemic are having on our communities, and we want to reassure residents that this step is temporary, and a critical one to get us closer to recovery.”

Under the orders, people are asked to stay home, and "make every effort possible to conduct only essential activities necessary to maintain health and well-being, such as getting groceries, obtaining medical supplies or medication, and/or engaging in outdoor activities like walking, hiking or running while following other social distancing practices," health officials said.

“Scientific evidence shows that we must act now, at this stage of the COVID-19 emergency, in order to save lives in the long-run," Jeff Zayach, Boulder County Public Health executive director, said in a statement. "It will give us the time we need to test comprehensively and to slow the spread of the virus to prevent our health care system from being overwhelmed."

Work to provide essential business and government services or perform essential public infrastructure construction, including housing, is also permitted. People at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and people who are sick are urged to stay in their residence except to seek medical care, health officials said.

Mark Johnson, Jefferson County Public Health's executive director, said the virus is "easily spread through person-to-person contact."

“This order will help protect everyone in our community by ensuring social distancing measures are followed. By taking this action now, we can start to flatten the pandemic curve,” Johnson said in a statement.

The health departments have released the following examples of permitted activities under the orders:

• Getting medical care for you, a family member or your pet
• Visiting a health care professional
• Getting medical supplies or medication
• Going to get groceries, food (via takeout, drive-thru, food banks/pantries) or other essential household items
• Getting supplies to work from home
• Picking up materials from your child’s school needed for distance learning (tablet, books)
• Going outside for physical activity, as long as you stay at least 6 feet away from people who are not in your household and follow social distancing practices
• Going to work, ONLY if you provide essential products or services at an essential business (health care operations, infrastructure operations and maintenance, certain government functions

Examples of activities that aren't permitted under the stay-at-home orders:

• In-person public or private gatherings of any kind with people outside of your residence
• Traveling, except to get essential services or medical care
• Carpooling with anyone outside of the household

Denver and Boulder are also under stay-at-home orders.

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