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Update: The latest on COVID-19 in Colorado Attorney General Weiser urges Trump to strengthen safety requirements at meatpacking plants. Colorado lawmakers, Western States Pact ask federal officials for $1 trillion for state and local governments.

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Colorado News

This story was originally published on March 5 and will be updated daily. For earlier updates during the month of April, visit this page. For updates from March, when COVID-19 began to first spread through Colorado, visit this page.

May 12, 4:10 p.m. update:

Here are some of the latest numbers on COVID-19 in Colorado from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. According to CDPHE, this summary only includes data through May 11 and does not reflect cases since then.

20,157 cases*

3,695 hospitalized

60 counties

109,304 people tested**

199 confirmed outbreaks

1,009 deaths

*According to CDPHE: “Positive cases include people who tested positive, as well as cases where epidemiological investigation has determined that there is a high likelihood that an untested individual has COVID-19 due to their symptoms and close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.”

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

May 12, 3:15 p.m. update:

Colorado lawmakers and leaders of four other western states requested $1 trillion from federal officials in direct, flexible funds to prop up state and local governments facing revenue shortages because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Without additional flexible aid from the federal government, our state will be forced to make the deepest budget cuts we have ever seen,” Colorado House Speaker Rep. KC Becker, a Democrat from Boulder, said in a statement. “These cuts would hurt vulnerable populations and further impact our already underfunded schools and institutions of higher education, which still haven’t recovered from the last recession.”

In a letter to congressional leaders, lawmakers from member states of the Western States Pact, which includes Colorado, California, Oregon, Nevada and Washington, urged a congressional stimulus bill that would “preserve core government services.”

“Though even this amount will not replace the decline in revenue that we forecast, it will make a meaningful difference in our ability to make-up for COVID-19 revenue losses,” the letter said.

House Democrats unveiled a $3 trillion stimulus bill on Tuesday that includes $1 trillion for state and local governments. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said the legislation was a “liberal wish list” that doesn’t stand a chance of passing, according to reporting by The Washington Post.

May 12, 11:10 a.m update:

Attorney General Phil Weiser and 20 other attorneys general sent a letter to President Trump on Tuesday urging action to address the spread of COVID-19 in meatpacking plants.

More than 12,500 meatpacking workers nationwide have tested positive for the coronavirus and at least 53 have died, according to the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. In Colorado, one of the largest outbreaks of COVID-19 occurred at the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, with at least 280 cases and 7 deaths. At least 101 other cases and one death are tied to meatpacking plants around the state.

“We need mandatory and enforceable health and safety measures to protect employees at meat and poultry processing facilities. As we have witnessed in Colorado, COVID-19 outbreaks at these facilities threaten to result in wider community spread and put more lives and our food supply at risk,” Weiser said in a statement released by his office.

President Trump issued an executive order on April 28 directing the Secretary of Agriculture under the Defense Production Act to ensure that meat processing plants remain operational using federal safety guidance.

Weiser and the attorneys general, in their letter, argued that the executive order benefits the meat processing industry at the expense of workers’ health and safety. The federal safety guidance should be strengthened and changed to mandatory safety requirements that facilities must follow to remain open, the attorneys general said.

“Without adequate and enforceable mandates to protect worker safety, your Executive Order may perpetuate this spread of illness and death,” the letter said.

The attorneys general recommend the requirements for meatpacking plants include:

Priority testing for workers in the processing plants.

Immediate access to adequate personal protective equipment.

Suspend waivers that allow plants to force employees to work faster and longer, and a halt to approval of any additional waivers.

6-foot physical and social distancing where possible.

Plexiglass barriers where distancing cannot be achieved.

Isolation and quarantine of COVID-19 positive workers, with full pay.

May 11, 4:05 p.m. update:

19,879 cases*

3,663 hospitalized

60 counties

106,761 people tested**

192 confirmed outbreaks

987 deaths

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

May 11, 3:30 p.m. update:

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is suspending the license of the C&C Coffee and Kitchen in Castle Rock indefinitely after the restaurant opened on Mother’s Day in defiance of the governor’s public health orders, Gov. Jared Polis announced on Monday.

During a press conference with reporters at the state Capitol, Polis said he was disappointed after watching the videos of the packed restaurant online. He said he was thinking about all the moms and grandmothers whose lives were put at an increased risk of dying from the virus as a result. He choked up when he mentioned his mom, whom he said he did not take out to lunch on Mother’s Day. He said he loves her far too much to put her life at risk by visiting a busy restaurant operating illegally.

“We’re walking a tightrope between protecting all of our health and of course trying to grow our economy. It’s hard enough to walk without folks shaking the rope because of their own ideology or anti-scientific views which they choose over the lives of our brothers and sisters,” Polis said.

He added, “If the state didn’t act and more businesses followed suit, it’s a near guarantee that people would lose their lives.”

Polis also announced camping can resume in the state’s parks starting on Tuesday, unless county orders prohibit it. Camping can only be done through reservation, and Polis said campers should minimize their interactions with others.

“Fill up your automobile in your local area, get the supplies you need from stores in your local area — including food — and then yes you can go hike or you can go camp and return home,” Polis said.

He said he doesn’t want campers infecting local communities that have reduced infections or bringing the virus back to their homes from their trips.

Restaurants should expect a decision on whether they can gradually reopen by May 25, the governor said. May 25 is about one month after the safer-at-home order took effect, which is the amount of time needed for social distancing effectiveness to show up in the data, Polis said. The reason is that it can take up to two weeks for an infected person to be recorded in the state’s database because of the incubation period of the virus and testing logistics, Polis said. And he said he wants to see how the virus is spreading after two or three cycles of infection.

Polis said he expects to have the data to decide if summer camps can open on May 25, as well.

“Always subject to change and always subject to phase-ins,” Polis said of the timelines.

May 11, 1:45 p.m. update:

The Tri-County Health Department ordered the closure of C&C Breakfast & Korean Kitchen in Castle Rock on Monday afternoon. The restaurant opens Mother’s Day in defiance of the governor’s public health orders.

“If the restaurant refuses to follow Governor Jared Polis’ public health order, further legal action will be taken that could include revocation of the restaurant’s license,” the health department said in a statement.

May 10 5:10 p.m. update:

C&C Coffee and Kitchen in Castle Rock opened for business on Sunday in violation of Gov. Jared Polis’s executive orders designed to manage the spread of COVID-19.

In a video taken by Colorado Community Media’s Nick Puckett, the restaurant appears to be completely full, with a line stretching out of the door.

Happy Mother’s Day from C& C in Castle Rock, where the owner said this is almost double a normal Mother’s Day. pic.twitter.com/cPSzjmAfAg

— Nick Puckett (@nick__puckett) May 10, 2020

C&C owner April Arellano wrote on Facebook that “I will go out of business if I don’t do something.” House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, who has called on Douglas County to severe ties with the local health department over its COVID-19-related public health orders, posted a photo on Facebook of him posing with Arellano at the restaurant on Sunday.

Under the state’s safer-at-home orders, restaurants can’t offer dine-in service and Polis has said businesses that violate the orders face their licenses being revoked.

“These restaurants are not only breaking the law, they are endangering the lives of their staff, customers, and community,” said Polis’s deputy press secretary Shelby Wieman in a statement to The Denver Post.

19,703 cases*

3,631 hospitalized

60 counties

104,077 people tested**

190 confirmed outbreaks

971 deaths

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

May 10, 11:21 a.m. update:

Lawmakers have extended their recess until May 26 in order “to give additional time for preparations including safety protocols, to work through appropriate legislation, and to seek greater clarity on potential Congressional action that could significantly impact our state budget,” according to a news release from House and Senate Democrats.

The original plan was to return to the Capitol on May 18.

The Joint Budget Committee this week has been going through each state department’s budget and making cuts. The extra week will give budget writers more time to backfill a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall caused by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 response.

“Last week our Joint Budget Committee had to begin the heart-wrenching process of rewriting Colorado’s budget after COVID-19 created a more than $3 billion revenue shortfall,” said Senate President Leroy Garcia, a Democrat from Pueblo, in a statement. “With so much at risk and our desired return date fast approaching, we determined that it would benefit all Coloradans if we gave our budgetary and legislative process a bit more breathing room. Though facing our dire fiscal situation has been a painful task, we are committed to protecting our most critical institutions and vulnerable populations as best as we possibly can. We look forward to continuing to fight for our communities in the Capitol when we all return on May 26.”

May 9, 5:07 p.m. update:

19,375 cases*

3,623 hospitalized

59 counties

100,610 people tested**

188 confirmed outbreaks

967 deaths

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

May 8, 5:15 p.m. update:

18,827 cases*

3,600 hospitalized

59 counties

96,772 people tested**

184 confirmed outbreaks

960 deaths

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

May 8, 3:00 p.m. update:

Gov. Jared Polis answered questions from the media on Friday in a virtual press conference, following a request for Coloradans to wear masks whenever they are in public during the safer-at-home order.

Here are a few of the highlights.

Polis fielded a question about testing at the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, which has the largest confirmed outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Colorado, with 280 cases and at least 7 workers who have died from the disease, according to data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

JBS, in conjunction with the state, originally planned to test every worker at the plant, but broke that promise and instead opted to shut down to disinfect. Polis said the state set up a testing site for workers and community members in Greeley less than a mile away from the plant. The site tested more than 1,000 people, he said. The plant employs 6,000 people.

“If the company is interested in more testing, we’d be happy to work with them to get the testing they need,” Polis said.

The governor, answering another question about JBS, added “if they need to be closed again, we are confident that we have the tools to be able to do that.”

When asked by a reporter why the state isn’t testing all nursing homes and nursing home employees, Polis said the state is using the National Guard and help from Colorado State University to work towards a goal of testing 45,000 workers at nursing homes. Testing at nursing homes continues to be one of the top priorities of the state, Polis said.

The governor responded to a question asking what standards the state will use to decide whether stricter measures are appropriate. Polis said the standards are similar to those the state used at the start of the outbreak in March — ensuring hospitals aren’t overwhelmed. The state will be looking at hospitalization rates, but hospitalization can happen days or weeks after infection, he said, making it a less useful data point when deciding whether to lockdown again. The number of diagnosed cases, testing results and Coloradans’ distancing effectiveness — using cell phone and traffic data — are more responsive indicators of the severity of the virus, Polis said.

May 8, 11:15 a.m. update:

Criminal justice advocates are calling on Gov. Jared Polis to help release thousands of inmates by ordering commutations and parole reforms. The goal is to allow for at least single-cell occupancy in the state’s prisons, according to a May 8 letter from ACLU Colorado and others.

“Colorado just abolished the death penalty. We cannot keep elderly and medically vulnerable Coloradans incarcerated in prisons that are likely to become their death traps,” the letter states.

Colorado’s prison population has dropped to the lowest level in decades. But the process for releasing inmates during the pandemic has been slow. And some with underlying health issues are not being considered for early release, advocates say.

The parole reforms include suspending a requirement that people have to have an approved parole plan prior to review by the parole board and to allow people who require victim notifications to be eligible for early release.

The letter also calls on the Polis administration to implement more widespread testing in the state’s prisons.

Another reason to release inmates, according to the letter, is the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on people of color, who are overrepresented in the state’s prison system. Here’s a breakdown (inmate population (Colorado population)):

White: 45.8% (87%) Black: 17.5% (4.6%) Latino: 32% (21.7%) Native American: 3.5% (1.6%)

“In prison, as in the broader community, people of color will suffer the most from COVID-19. Black people account for less than 4% of Colorado’s population and yet, account for 7.6% of all COVID-19 cases and 7% of all deaths. Colorado’s Latinx population is similarly disproportionately impacted. Latinx people represent just over 21% of Colorado’s population, but account for 35% of COVID-19 cases. Because of historic and systemic racism in our criminal legal system and historic disinvestment in communities of color, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people are dramatically overrepresented in prisons. Thus, infections, serious illness, and deaths among incarcerated people will inevitably fall most heavily upon incarcerated people of color, who are also disproportionately represented among vulnerable populations with diabetes, heart disease, respiratory disease, and other conditions with COVID-19 comorbidity,” the letter states.

May 7, 6:30 p.m. update

18,371 cases*

3,557 hospitalized

59 counties

92,267 people tested**

178 confirmed outbreaks

944 deaths

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

May 7 3:35 p.m. update:

Coloradans are experiencing a heightened level of stress, anxiety and emotional distress because of the pandemic, a phenomenon mental health care providers say they are trying to separate from clinical mental problems.

It’s normal to feel those heightened negative emotions right now, Brad Sjostrom, manager of West Pines Behavioral Health, said in a virtual town hall with mental health care providers and Democratic lawmakers on Thursday. No one has been through something like the pandemic, he said. Just because someone is anxious right now, doesn’t mean they will go on to develop a mental health condition, he said.

But, “if we feel overwhelmed to the point that we’re not functioning, it’s good to seek mental help,” Sjostrom said.

As a collective crisis, the pandemic requires people to lean on each other, Vincent Atchity, CEO of Mental Health Colorado, said. The more that everyone can form personal networks of friends and family to speak to, the more providers can be freed up to address serious mental health needs.

Mental health care providers have switched many services to telehealth, a transition that has been positive, Sjostrom said. The transition was made possible through executive orders from Gov. Jared Polis and relaxation of other federal and state telehealth regulations. Telehealth is not a catch-all, Sjostrom and other providers said, but it does allow providers to extend their reach.

“For those who want to do in-person treatment, it will be available at some point,” Sjostrom said.

For more on how telehealth has impacted substance abuse disorder treatment in Colorado, read our story here.

Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet of Aurora and Rep. Jonathan Singer of Boulder represented the Colorado House Public Health Care and Human Services Committee on the video call. Singer said the Colorado legislature recognizes the possible benefits of telehealth in treating mental health needs. Polis’s executive orders relaxing telehealth regulations will provide an “excellent template” when the legislature reconvenes on May 18, Singer said.

May 7, 1:00 p.m. update:

More than 41,000 more Coloradans filed for unemployment last week, the lowest weekly total in the past six weeks.

In all, more than 419,000 claims have been filed over the past six weeks, and more than 33 million unemployment claims have been filed nationally.

Colorado paid out more than $84 million in benefits last week. Compare that to the height of the great recession — between 2009 and 2010 — where an average of $19 million in benefits were paid out by the state weekly. Coloradans have also received more than $407 million from the federal government in $600 weekly payments on top of their regular benefits and the new benefits for independent contractors since April 20, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE).

CDLE broke down the industries with the most workers filing for unemployment. There is a two-week lag. Here is the most recent data from the week ending on April 18.

Top 5 industries with highest claims:

Accommodation and Food Services: 5,283

Retail Trade: 5,092

Healthcare and Social Service*: 3,775

Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services**: 1,907

Arts, Entertainment and Recreation: 1,819

*According to CDLE, most of the claims from workers in healthcare and social services come from daycares and physician and dentist offices.

**Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services include temporary help services, telemarketing centers and janitorial and landscaping services.

May 7, 11:55 p.m. update:

The state is planning to keep its two alternative care sites on standby into the fall in case there is a second wave of COVID-19 hospitalizations that exceeds hospital capacity, according to Kevin Klein, the director for the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

“Our target is to have them ready to go if we need them,” Klein told reporters on Thursday. “We’re planning for the worst, hoping for the best.”

He said the state plans to have a 200-bed alternative care site at The Ranch in Loveland ready by June 11 and the 250-bed site at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver ready by June 4. The Denver site was initially planned to have 2,000 beds.

These dates could be pushed out again.

“What we don’t want to do is put any additional costs in by staffing those facilities. We will keep looking at what the data tell us and what our hospital capacity is,” Klein said.

The other alternative sites — St. Anthony’s North 84th Avenue Facility in Westminster, St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center in Pueblo and Western Slope Memory Care in Grand Junction — should all be ready in late June or early July, according to health officials.

Klein said state models predict there may be a second wave of COVID-19 cases peaking in the fall.

May 6, 4:35 p.m. update

17,830 cases*

2,986 hospitalized

57 counties

89,529 people tested**

174 confirmed outbreaks

921 deaths

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

May 6, 12:40 p.m. update:

At least 8 meatpacking plant workers have died of COVID-19 in Colorado, the Department of Public Health and Environment confirmed Wednesday.

At the JBS beef plant in Greeley at least 280 workers have been diagnosed with COVID-19, state data show, making it the state’s largest confirmed COVID-19 outbreak location. On Wednesday, the state confirmed the seventh death at the plant related to the disease. At least 60 workers at the Cargill Meat Solutions plant in Fort Morgan have also tested positive for COVID-19. One of those workers has died, according to state health officials.

May 5, 4:50 p.m. update:

17,364 cases*

2,919 hospitalized

56 counties

85,976 people tested**

170 confirmed outbreaks

903 deaths

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

May 5, 3:00 p.m. update:

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and officials confirmed that the city’s businesses will be able to operate under largely the same guidelines as the statewide safer-at-home orders starting Saturday.

“We are in a good place to take the next step,” Bob McDonald, executive director of Denver’s public health department, said at a press conference.

Retail and commercial businesses will be able to open at 50% customer and employee capacity, Hancock said. At salons, tattoo parlors and barbers, business must be conducted by appointment only and with a capacity of 50% or fewer than 10 customers, whichever amount is less.

Playgrounds, recreation centers and basketball courts will still be closed, along with dine-in service at restaurants and bars. Hancock said the city can’t offer a timeframe when bars and restaurants can start to open up.

McDonald acknowledged that the city is still seeing new infections of the coronavirus, but more importantly, he noted, the hospitalization rate is currently as low as it was at the beginning of the outbreak.

Denver is training 45 contact tracers to track the spread of infections, which will help the city start to gradually open. The city also launched a mobile testing unit on Tuesday, and is planning on launching six more, McDonald said. The mobile tests will be free.

Denver’s mandatory mask requirement starts on Wednesday, which officials say will be enforced. The city is asking area businesses to help enforce the order, but asks that businesses don’t get into confrontations with customers, according to Kristin Bronson, Denver city attorney.

May 4, 4:45 p.m. update:

On Sunday, protesters formed caravans in the neighborhoods around the homes of John Fabbricatore, acting field director for the ICE Denver office, and Johnny Choate, warden of the GEO Group-run ICE detention center in Aurora.

The protesters demanded that ICE free all of the detainees at the Aurora facility. As of April 24, five workers at the facility tested positive for the coronavirus and no detainees have tested positive. ICE released eight medically vulnerable detainees on April 15.

Some of the exchanges on Sunday were recorded and shared to the Abolish ICE Facebook page here. The page’s administrators accused counterprotesters of stealing signs, damaging their vehicles and assaulting activists during the protest.

This is the second time in less than a year anti-ICE activists have protested in front of Choate’s home. On Sept. 19, 2019, activists, police and counter-protesters clashed outside of the warden’s home resulting in three arrests.

16,907 cases*

2,838 hospitalized

56 counties

83,266 people tested**

163 confirmed outbreaks***

851 deaths

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

***The total amount of outbreaks reported is less than the number reported on April 29. CDPHE’s website doesn’t provide a reason for the drop.

May 4, 2:45 p.m. update:

Some businesses on Monday can begin reopening with a 50% in-person workforce. And on Friday, counties across the state will be lifting stay-at-home orders. As a result, many Coloradans will be able to return to work. But what about those who fear for their health going to work?

A reporter asked Gov. Jared Polis about this on Monday during a press briefing at the state Capitol. He replied, “Nobody can be compelled to go to work. That’s a very important statement to make.” He added that there are benefits under the federal CARES Act available to workers who are unemployed.

Colorado is an “employment-at-will” state, meaning employers can fire employees without reason or notice.

Separately, the governor announced a state map of testing locations. Here’s a link.

May 4 10:30 a.m. update:

Democratic lawmakers have abandoned their effort to set up a new health insurance plan known as the “Colorado Option,” similar to public option plans that are tightly regulated by the government, in part due to the complications of getting public input during the pandemic.

“This is simply not possible right now. A successful Colorado Option needs the input of our frontline workers & right now they need to focus on taking care of patients & themselves. I know this is the right policy to address the rising cost of care & lack of insurance choice,” tweeted Sen. Kerry Donovan, a Democrat from Vail who was sponsoring the bill.

Lawmakers will be in a pinch when they reconvene on May 18, struggling to find money in a state budget crippled by the economic fallout of the pandemic at a time when they say government assistance is needed most. Over the past five weeks, more than 358,489 Coloradans have filed for unemployment, according to the Department of Labor and Employment. Rep. Dillon Roberts, who was also sponsoring the bill, tweeted Monday, “A pandemic that causes thousands to lose employer-based health coverage clearly illustrates the need for a Colorado Option.”

Lawmakers last week also dropped a bill to set up a paid family and medical leave program in Colorado. This year marks the sixth attempt at passing such a program.

The Joint Budget Committee is meeting today to begin working on the state budget, which faces a multi-billion shortfall due to a drop in revenue from personal income and sales taxes. Five of the six JBC members were wearing face masks while meeting except for Rep. Kim Ransom, a Republican from Littleton.

May 3, 5:20 p.m. update:

On April 30, after traveling to work in New York City during to COVID-19 pandemic on the medical emergency front lines, Aurora paramedic Paul Cary died at the age of 66. He was flown to the Denver International Airport on Sunday and escorted to the Olinger Hampden Funeral Home & Cemetery.

Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement, “Paul Cary served his community, and his country, heroically, and I am incredibly saddened by his passing. During a time of great need, he selflessly volunteered to travel thousands of miles from his home to help others. He risked his own health and safety, and stepped up to do what he could. This is a difficult time for so many Coloradans, and so many Americans. I can never express just how grateful I am for people like Paul, and all our emergency responders who are on the front lines of this virus. Paul dedicated his life to the service of others, and he will be greatly missed.”

16,635 cases*

2,799 hospitalized

56 counties

81,352 people tested**

163 confirmed outbreaks***

842 deaths

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

***The total amount of outbreaks reported is less than the number reported on April 29. CDPHE’s website doesn’t provide a reason for the drop.

May 2, 6:15 p.m. update:

16,225 cases*

2,793 hospitalized

56 counties

78,179 people tested**

163 confirmed outbreaks***

832 deaths

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

***The total amount of outbreaks reported is less than the number reported on April 29. CDPHE’s website doesn’t provide a reason for the drop.

May 1, 9 p.m. update:

An 86-year-old male prison inmate died at the Sterling Regional Medical Center on Friday after experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, the Department of Corrections (DOC) said. DOC said he was tested for COVID-19 while at the hospital and the official cause of death will come from the coroner’s office.

DOC said the inmate had been housed on the east side of the Sterling Correctional Facility, a prison where 241 inmates and 11 employees have had lab-confirmed COVID-19.

DOC said it will not be releasing his name at this time.

May 1, 5:20 p.m. update:

The City and County of Denver will be issuing an order requiring residents to wear face coverings on May 6, according to city officials.

Denver residents must wear a face covering when they are in or in-line at a retail or critical business, receiving any healthcare services or using public transportation. Workers in retail, commercial or other critical businesses must also wear a mask if their work requires them to come in contact with people or food. The order includes rideshare, taxi and other transportation drivers who must also wear masks when driving.

A face covering is not required if it would harm a person’s health or if a worker is in a private office. The coverings can be made of any type of porous material that covers the nose and mouth, as long as they don’t have one-way plastic valves. According to the Denver’s public health department, plastic valves allow droplets to be released into the air from breathing.

Violators could face a fine of up to $999 under the May 6 order, which will continue “until further notice.”

For more clarification, state officials say Gov. Jared Polis’ decision to cut Colorado’s Medicaid program by $183 million on Thursday was offset by earlier federal funding.

Portions of the federal coronavirus stimulus bills gave the Colorado Medicaid program $182 million to offset new enrollment costs to the program, according to Kim Bimestefer, executive director of the Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing (HCPF), which oversees the state’s Medicaid program. There won’t be any changes to benefits or services until the next budget year, Bimestefer said, because the state won’t need to pay for the costs from new enrollment until the new budget year starts in July.

HCPF estimates that Medicaid will see more than 437,000 new enrollees to the state’s public health insurance programs because of COVID-19, and projects the federal government will add another $100 million in funding next year for the department, Bimestefer said.

The state government’s budget will have an estimated $3.2 billion shortfall next year, and the department doesn’t yet have accurate projections on the cost of those new enrollees.

To cover any possible funding shortfalls, Bimestefer said HCPF has set up a plan to prioritize cuts next year, starting with those with the least impact on low-income enrollees.HCPF will also be pushing for more telehealth options in the future to cut costs, she said.

May 1, 4:05 p.m. update:

15,768 cases*

2,747 hospitalized

56 counties

75,249 people tested**

161 confirmed outbreaks***

820 deaths

**The total number of people tested may not include all negative results.

***The total amount of outbreaks reported is less than the number from April 29. CDPHE’s website doesn’t provide a reason for the drop.

May 1, 9 a.m. update:

Gov. Jared Polis joined most states across the U.S. in placing a moratorium on evictions for renters late Thursday night.

The order says no person “shall remove or exclude a tenant from a premises or enter a premises to remove or exclude personal property of a tenant from the premises” or “execute or enforce a writ of restitution, possession judgment, or order.” This means sheriffs will not be allowed to serve a court-ordered evictions.

Landlords are also prohibited from charging late fees or penalties for any breach of the terms of a lease or rental agreement due to nonpayment, the order states.

The order expires in 30 days.

The executive order came as part of a series issued at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday. In one order, Polis immediately suspended state spending for the remainder of the fiscal year, cutting $229 million from this year’s budget. The order did not mandate any furloughs or layoffs, according to the Office of State Planning and Budgeting. The majority of the cuts — $183 million — come from Medicaid services.

Another order directs the executive director of the Health Care Policy and Financing Department to increase payments to nursing facilities and other provider-owned residential settings. Deaths at nursing homes and long-term care facilities account for about half of the COVID-19 deaths in Colorado.

Yet another order allows Colorado’s health care providers to widely use telehealth services for another month, including phone and video calls. The state originally relaxed regulations to allow telehealth to be billed to Medicaid and private insurance in most situations.

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bigyack-com · 5 years ago

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Coronavirus in New York: Despite Staggering Death Toll, Outbreak Could Be Slowing

New York, the epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak, has begun to show the first signs of controlling the crisis: Its staggering death and hospitalization rates have started to stabilize, according to figures released by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday.But striking a note of optimistic caution, Mr. Cuomo warned that the state’s progress could continue only if New Yorkers maintained a sense of discipline and suppressed their natural impulse to gather in the parks or on the streets, especially as the spring weather starts improving.“We get reckless,” Mr. Cuomo said at his daily news briefing, “you will see these numbers go up again.”The governor’s mixed assessment came as the pandemic entered its second month and neared what federal officials called a crucial moment for determining its future. The seesawing nature of the crisis was apparent on Wall Street: The stock market had one of its biggest rallies of the year on Monday, with the S&P 500 closing up 7 percent, even as the death toll in the United States surpassed 10,000.Even with the promising signs, the virus’s overall toll in New York State was still astonishing: Nearly 5,000 people in the state have died, half of those in New York City. More than 120,000 residents have tested positive, and more than 16,000 are hospitalized.And across the country, many states were reporting alarming increases in cases that were straining hospitals. Federal officials, who have cited projections indicating that the virus could ultimately kill more than 100,000 people nationwide, warned that the next few days could bring a ghastly uptick in the number of deaths and infections.In Florida, Indiana and Louisiana, the number of fatalities attributed to the virus more than doubled in a week. But there were also signs that the situation was improving on the West Coast, where the virus first surged in the United States. The governors of California, Oregon and Washington said they would send ventilators to states that needed them more.“We want every American to know that what they’re doing is making a difference,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the leader of the White House coronavirus task force, said Monday during the group’s daily briefing. “But we need to have solidarity of commitment from everyone.”Outside the United States, Western Europe reached its own important turning point on Monday: While the total number of patients on the continent continued to climb, the rate of new infections was no longer rising.The shift seemed clearest in Europe’s two most battered countries, Italy and Spain, where the daily number of deaths has been running into the hundreds and where the number of infections is well above 100,000.But in Britain, developments were grimmer: Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has contracted the virus, was moved into intensive care on Monday night, one day after being admitted to the hospital. Britain had reported more than 5,900 new infections on Sunday, its highest single-day total so far.Mr. Cuomo’s fatherly appeal to New Yorkers to stay the course — and to stay away from one another — came at one of his regular daily briefings, which have become a kind of touchstone for many Americans in the past few weeks.As always, his presentations were filled with an array of detailed statistics. Though New York’s daily death toll peaked at 630 on Saturday, it hovered around 600 on both Sunday and Monday, he said. That followed a long stretch in which hospitalizations in the state were growing at a rate of 20 to 30 percent a day, but are now increasing at a single-digit rate.“While none of this is good news, the flattening — or possible flattening — is better than the increases we have seen,” Mr. Cuomo said.The continuing flood of patients into hospital emergency rooms has presented a daunting challenge to policymakers like Mr. Cuomo who are trying to predict on the fly not only where the crisis might be headed, but also when New York might be able to return to a semblance of normalcy. The governor said on Monday that schools and nonessential stores would remain closed at least through April 29.The governor’s staff, in attempting to divine the course of the outbreak, has been using statistical models created by the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington, which has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as predictions generated by McKinsey & Company and Weill Cornell Medicine.Much of the uncertainty comes from the fact that the statistics themselves are far from solid indicators.The number of hospitalizations, for instance, depends partly on admission standards. Some overwhelmed hospitals are sending home people who are in less dire shape, but whom they would admit in normal circumstances. There are also indications that Covid-19 deaths are being undercounted — especially those who die of the illness at home, rather than a hospital. And studies have shown that many people never even know they have been infected, one reason the governor spent much of his time in front of the camera scolding those New Yorkers who found the outdoors too inviting to resist.“Frankly, there has been a laxness on social distancing, especially over this past weekend,” he said. “Now is not the time to be playing Frisbee with your friends in the park. Now’s not the time to go to a funeral with 200 people.”“I understand how the religious services can help with the grieving process,” he said. “But, as a society, the risk is too great.”To ensure that downward trends continued, officials in New York City announced that they were closing all dog parks and dog runs because people using them were not practicing adequate social distancing. City officials also promised to crack down on funerals where people were ignoring separation measures.On Sunday, after people complained about crowds, the police broke up a funeral for a prominent ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbi who died of the virus in Borough Park, Brooklyn. And the governor said the state was doubling the maximum fine for ignoring social distancing rules, to $1,000.Mr. Cuomo has continued to shore up the state’s battered hospital system, which, like those across the nation, is suffering from acute shortages of crucial medical supplies, according to a study released by a government watchdog.On Monday, nursing unions in New York called for more protective equipment like N95 masks and increased staffing during the pandemic. Mr. Cuomo also announced that he was planning to move more than 800 ventilators to New York City and its suburbs.The governor said as well that President Trump had agreed to a change in policy that would allow the U.S.N.S. Comfort, a Navy hospital ship that arrived in New York City last week, to care for people infected with the virus. The ship had previously been reserved for non-Covid patients, but was being underused because hospitals had so few of them to send.In another stark symbol of the crisis, officials of the Episcopal Diocese of New York announced on Monday that the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Manhattan would be turned into a field hospital.With the number of city residents dying of the virus outpacing the system’s capacity to handle them, officials were considering temporarily burying people in mass graves in a park, the chairman of the City Council’s health committee said on Monday.“It will be done in a dignified, orderly — and temporary — manner,” the chairman, City Councilman Mark Levine, wrote on Twitter. “But it will be tough for NYers to take.”A spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio disputed Mr. Levine’s remark, saying, “There are no plans to bury anyone in local parks.”Mr. Cuomo also stepped into the debate over the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, to treat virus patients, which the president has promoted even though the administration’s health experts have noted a lack of conclusive evidence that it works.Mr. Cuomo said that hospitals in New York were already using it, and that he planned to ask Mr. Trump to increase the federal supply of the drug to New York pharmacies.“There has been anecdotal evidence that it is promising,” he said. “That’s why we’re going ahead.”But the governor suggested that even though New York had reason to hope in recent days, the weeks and months ahead were likely to be grueling.“This is an enemy that we have underestimated from Day 1, and we have paid the price dearly,” he said.Reporting was contributed by Joseph Goldstein, Sarah Mervosh, Andy Newman, Mitch Smith, Benjamin Weiser and Karen Yourish. 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