COVID-19 Update April 2

Both Governor Polis and Mayor Hancock have said they will extend their “stay at home” orders through April 30, 2020. But it hasn’t happened yet and the media is making a mess of it. To be fair, government agencies – even those within the same jurisdiction – are making a mess of it. Here’s a glimpse.

• Colorado Executive Order D 2020 017. Requires Coloradans to stay at home through April 11, 2020. Most cities and counties including Denver rescinded or revised their own stay-at-home orders to adopt the state order. This is the order that is in effect at the time of this writing.
• Jefferson County Public Health Order 20-002. Just to be different, several metro counties not named Denver got together and issued a joint press release announcing their own stay-at-home order through April 17, 2020. If you live in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, or Jefferson counties, your stay-at-home order lasts six days longer than Colorado’s stay at home order.
• Colorado Executive Order D 2020 021. Suspends in-person instruction at all public and private schools through April 30, 2020 (was previously April 10). This is the order that is creating the most confusion because it doesn’t align with any of the current stay-at-home orders.

What It Means for Simplifya

Our “policy” on this is the same as it’s been since the beginning of the pandemic – we’ll continue to try to make the best decisions possible based on the most current information possible. Right now, that means our self-quarantine will continue through April 11th. There is plenty of time between now and then for things to change. Everyone including me expects Polis to extend the order through April 30th. If and when it happens, we’ll adapt accordingly.

I think some of you have already done this – let’s make it official. You are allowed to use your office monitor at home for the duration of this home quarantine. I’d just ask that you treat it as if you’d paid for it. That means securing it during transport and using a surge protector.

Staying Well Informed

And in the spirit of staying well informed, I wanted to share this projection model that shows when each state is expected to peak in terms of hospital resource use. For Colorado, it’s April 17th – this is the kind of data that supports an extension of the stay-at-home order through April 30th.