Tri-County Health Considers Extending Stay-At-Home Order
(CBS4) - Officials with the Tri-County Health Department are considering extending their stay-at-home order after the statewide order expires on Sunday. Health officials say they're studying current trends and will be reviewing the need to extend the stay-at-home order for two weeks until May 8 for specific locations that are still experiencing high numbers of people sick with COVID-19.
The Tri-County Health Department covers Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas counties.
"While we want to minimize confusion for the public, reopening could look different for different communities based on the level of COVID-19 cases in that specific area," said John M. Douglas, Jr., MD, Executive Director of Tri-County Health Department. "Many parts of the state do not have growing numbers of COVID-19 cases and it makes sense for them to open, but in the more densely populated counties in the metro area, opening too soon could be detrimental to keeping us healthy and open moving forward."
The Tri-County Health Department ordered a Walmart to close Thursday in Aurora due to a COVID-19 outbreak among employees. According to health officials, an employee, her husband and a security guard have died from the virus.
The Walmart Supercenter is located at 14000 East Exposition Avenue. The health department reports six confirmed cases of COVID-19 among employees, plus an additional three tests that are being processed.
Aurora Mayor Michael Coffman says despite the outbreak, he feels the city is on the right path.
"We've been working hard to bring it down and flatten the curve and I think we've largely been successful," he told CBS4's Dominic Garcia.
Officials with the Tri-County Health Department say they will make their decision before Sunday. Coffman says he'll comply with whatever the health department decides, even though he'd prefer not to.
"I'm with the governor. I think the governor has struck the right balance between the public health needs and the economic needs of this state. And so I would prefer that we continue along the path he set," said Coffman.
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