Coronavirus Update: Gov. Jared Polis Urges Everyone To Stay Home

DENVER (CBS4)- Gov. Jared Polis urged everyone to stay home during a news conference on Friday afternoon. He also clarified some questions in the stay at home order that went into effect on Thursday morning.

Polis urged Coloradans to stay in their own community and not travel for recreation or to get outside.

"The last thing you should want to do is drive away from your residence, just as you wouldn't go out in a tornado or storm," said Polis. "Our mountains and canyons have been here for hundreds of thousands of years and will continue to be there for hundreds of thousands of years."

Polis clarified that parents with shared custody can transport their children in order to comply with the custody agreement.

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He also urged employers to comply with the stay at home order or abide by the social distancing guidelines and limits on the number of employees in the workplace as he outlined last week.

"I continue urging my fellow Coloradans to stay home whenever possible. This global pandemic is not a competition about what you think you can get away with. The data we put forth today shows that staying home is crucial to saving lives. These are not statistics on a page, these are your neighbors, your friends, and even your family members," said Polis. "Our community and our economy will come out of this stronger than before but that means everyone must do their part."

As of Friday afternoon, there were 1,734 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 239 hospitalized and 31 deaths. The state has conducted more than 11,000 tests so far.

Polis said that there is a delayed effect when it comes to social distancing but that the efforts in Colorado are working. He said it delays the peak and delays hospitalizations.

Polis said Colorado has 1,849 ICU beds with half of those needed for non-COVID-19 patients. The goal is to add another 1,000 ICU beds by May, and another 5,000 by this summer.

"That is why we put the stay at home order in place so early, to keep those cases down and return to a normal, free market society and save lives," said Polis.