On Monday, La Plata County and other Colorado counties at Level Red public health restrictions are set to enter Level Orange as Gov. Jared Polis eases regulations across the state. But restaurants that have been certified through the 5-Star Certified Business Variance Program might not receive the benefits they were expecting – at least not immediately.
At Level Orange, restaurants, regardless of whether they have received a 5-Star certification, can open at 25% capacity. Had the county reached Level Orange by meeting the state’s previously-delineated metrics for COVID-19 transmission, 5-Star certified restaurants would be treated as though they were at Level Yellow, enabling them to operate at 50% capacity.
However, because the county did not reach Level Orange organically, 5-Star certified restaurants will continue to operate under Level Orange restrictions – with additional regulations that restaurants without the certification do not have to follow.
“The governor’s announcement is really good for businesses across the board because it opens them up a little bit,” said Tim Walsworth, executive director of the Durango Business Improvement District and a member of the Administrative Committee for the La Plata County 5-Star State Certification Program. “The problem with it is that it’s created some conflict with the 5-Star program. The Five-Star program did a really good job and does a good job of balancing public health and economic health. Unfortunately, his announcement has just undermined the benefits of that program until we get to the, quote, unquote, ‘real’ Level Orange by the metrics.”
To obtain the 5-Star certification, restaurants have to go beyond the typical requirements to stay open during the pandemic, enforcing stricter measures, such as increased mask wearing and mandatory contact tracing. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has eased some of the certification’s requirements to incentivize people not to leave the program, Walsworth said. For instance, the requirement that restaurants space tables 10 feet apart has been cut back to 6 feet. Similarly, 5-Star certified restaurants will no longer be required to verify that all diners in a party are from the same household.
Other increased requirements are still in place for certified restaurants, including:
Restaurants must ask customers if they’re feeling or have recently felt any symptoms of COVID-19.Restaurants must obtain the name and contact information of at least one member of a party for contact tracing.Restaurants must have written plans detailing their responses to certain situations, such as what will be done if an outbreak is detected at the restaurant.Restaurants must make efforts to improve ventilation in ways that combat the spread of the virus.Restaurants must promote the CO Exposure Notifications smartphone app.Walsworth said if restaurants choose to leave the certification program and then want to return to it later, they will need to reapply. However, if restaurants maintain their 5-Star certification or are certified before La Plata County reaches the state’s previously-set Level Orange metrics, they will be able to operate at Level Yellow restrictions.At this point, though, it is unclear when La Plata County will reach those metrics.
The one criteria preventing the county from reaching Level Orange organically is its case incidence rate, said Brian Devine, deputy incident commander of COVID-19 for San Juan Basin Public Health.
To qualify for Level Orange under the previous metrics, a community’s case rate must be below 350 positive cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day time period, adjusted for population.
As of Saturday morning, the incidence rate was between 400 and 450 positive cases over the previous 14 days, Devine said.
“We probably would have been in a place to cross that 350 threshold in the next couple of days, except that we still have not seen the full impact of Christmas gatherings and New Year’s Eve gatherings,” he said.
The fact that the county will be operating at Level Orange starting Monday also complicates the issue.
“It’s going to make it really, really hard to disentangle what was impacting the data in what ways,” he said. “Because if we see an increase, or if things flatten out, is that because people gathered at Christmas and New Year’s? Is that because we’re seeing a lot of transmission at 5-Star restaurants? Is that because we’re seeing a lot of transmission at indoor businesses in general, when they open on Monday? It makes it really hard to control the pandemic in ways that impact the community and the economy as little as possible.”
Devine said the state has told local officials that it will release a new public health order Monday, integrating the 5-Star certification rules and the COVID-19 dial metrics into a single document – and hopefully clearing up some of the confusion surrounding the conflicting restriction levels. He said the new rules might also shorten the 14-day monitoring period (which is based on the incubation period of the coronavirus) to a seven-day period.
ngonzales@durangoherald.com
