COLORADO, USA — The city of Denver is reopening its athletic courts and once again allowing short-term rentals as part of its latest phase of the battle against COVID-19.
UCHealth says antibody tests have revealed healthcare workers actually have a lower exposure to COVID-19 than other members of the general public.
In Colorado, more than 27,600 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and 1,524 with the virus have died.
Those are among the coronavirus updates for the state on Friday. More details are below, and we'll continue to post information as it comes in throughout the day.
WHAT TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
- 27,615 cases, up from 27,360 the day prior.
- 4,472 hospitalized, up from 4,460 the day prior.
- 1,524 deaths among those who tested positive for COVID-19, up from 1,512 the day prior.
- 1,274 deaths due to COVID-19, up from 1,255 the day prior.
- Get the latest data from the Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE).
- Polis said restaurants can reopen to in-person dining last week, with strict regulations in place. Day camps and youth sports camps could reopen June 1.
- Polis extended the state's safer-at-home order to July 1.
Arapahoe County to allow outdoor dining exceptions in unincorporated areas
The Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners has approved a resolution that will allow qualified restaurants, bars and other retail food or beverage businesses in unincorporated areas of the county to expand their service areas for temporary outdoor accommodations, according to a release.
The release said the temporary measure relaxes enforcement of applicable zoning laws, site plans or other restrictions so that businesses can begin welcoming customers, as long as they're observing health and safety protocols enacted under public health orders.
The resolution attempts to strike a balance between encouraging business owners to start making money again and the need to continue taking actions that will help slow the spread of the coronavirus, according to the release.
Denver reopening outdoor athletic courts, closing more streets for social distancing
Denver is setting up nets to reopen all of its outdoor athletic courts in city parks this weekend. This will be allowed as long as groups are made up of 10 people or fewer.
The city is working on a phased reopening for playgrounds and dog parks, according to a news release. It’s also weighing how to open summer camps, permitted and organized sports, and league play.
To encourage social distancing, the city has closed three additional stretches of road to give people in dense neighborhoods more places to walk, bike and run.
Those roads are:
Curtis Park: 30th Street from Welton Street to Larimer Street.
Congress Park: 11th Avenue from Race Street to Colorado Boulevard (with Josephine and York Streets remaining open to thru-traffic across 11th Avenue).
Cole: Franklin Street from 28th Avenue to 37th Avenue.
Short-term rentals are now also allowed in Denver per state policy.
UCHealth: Antibody tests reveal health-care workers have low rate of COVID-19 infection exposure
UCHealth staff and providers actually have a lower rate of COVID-19 exposure shown in antibody tests than the general public, a news release from the hospital system said.
According to UCHealth, 12,400 people have gotten antibody tests since they were available. Of those tests, 3.7% were positive. That number was 2.3% for UCHealth staff and providers.
“While one might expect health-care workers in hospitals would have higher rates of exposure, the results that we’ve seen so far indicate our employees and providers have lower rates of infection,” said Rob Welch, UCHealth’s lead laboratory director. “This suggests that our education efforts, personal protective equipment, social distancing and the strong infection prevention measures put in place by UCHealth at its hospitals and other health care facilities do indeed work, and our employees are following safety guidelines when they are not at work as well.”
An antibody test for the novel coronavirus involves a blood draw that determines whether a person has been exposed to the virus or infected in the past. At this point, scientists don’t know for certain whether antibodies offer any sort of protection from COVID-19.
Coronavirus cases in Colorado
CDPHE on May 15 changed the way it was reporting data in two ways:
- The number of deaths among people with COVID-19. This represents the total number of deaths reported among people who have COVID-19, but COVID-19 may not have been the cause of death listed on the death certificate. This information is required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is crucial for public health surveillance, as it provides more information about disease transmission and can help identify risk factors among all deaths across populations.
- The number of deaths among people who died from COVID-19: This represents the total number of people whose death was attributed to COVID-19 as indicated on a death certificate. This number is determined by the CDC and is updated daily for dates through the previous Saturday.
In Colorado, CDPHE reports 27,615 people have tested positive for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, up from 27,360 the day prior.
Fatalities
CDPHE reports:
- 1,524 deaths among people with COVID-19
- 1,274 deaths due to COVID-19
The day prior, 1,512 people had died, 1,255 from COVID-19.
The majority of deaths — 54% — are among people over age 80; 23% of deaths occurred in people between ages 70-79 and 13% were in people ages 60-69.
The graph below shows the total number of people in Colorado who have died after a COVID-19 diagnosis, since the first death happened on March 13.
Hospitalizations
Of those who tested positive for the disease, a total of 4,472 hospitalizations have been reported, up from 4,460 the day prior.
As of 11:47 a.m. on June 5, 215 patients were hospitalized with the disease, according to the most recent data from the Colorado Hospital Association. Within the last 24 hours, 20 patients have been transferred or discharged.
Note: 91% of facilities reported data on June 5.
This graph below shows the number of people currently hospitalized with a COVID-19 diagnosis and the number of people who have been discharged within 24 hours. This is a key metric because it can be an indicator of whether or not Colorado’s hospital system is being overwhelmed by the virus.
Testing
According to CDPHE, 205,761 people have been tested, up from 200,912 the day prior, and 60 counties are reporting cases, the same number as the day before.
This graph below shows the number of tests the state processed in a day. This is another key metric because the state’s ability to reopen will depend on the number of tests Colorado can run each day. As testing improves, the number of cases will rise because the more tests that are conducted, the more cases will be found.
Positivity is the number of tests that come back with a COVID-19 result. Above 10% could be an indicator that not enough testing is being done and that only people likely to have COVID are getting tested.
Please note that there may be a lull or spike in reported case data due to how it's reported. CDPHE data changes as labs, hospitals, facilities and local agencies report their own data. For example, a spike in the number of deaths does not necessarily mean that many more people died within 24 hours, but rather is indicative of when the data is entered into the system. New data is released daily at 4 p.m.
COVID-19 is a disease caused by a virus that first appeared in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. Symptoms of COVID-19 can include fever, cough and breathing trouble. Most patients develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal.
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