Gov. Jared Polis Continues To Urge Coloradans To Practice Social Distancing
DENVER (CBS4)- Gov. Jared Polis continues to urge Coloradans to maintain social distancing, wear a mask and keep in-person encounters to 30% during the safer-at-home phase of the coronavirus pandemic.
"If you slack off, it means more unnecessary deaths," said Polis during the Wednesday afternoon news conference.
"We have 17,860 positive cases in our state, that is confirmed, and tragically 921 deaths. Each of those is a tragedy. And I want to express my sincere condolences to the families that are in mourning across our state, as we keep the families of the 921 Coloradans we've lost to coronavirus in our thoughts."
He said that Coloradans had done a great job so far of keeping coronavirus cases lower than expected but that the work isn't done yet.
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"The better we maintain restricting social interactions, the better chance we have of getting out of this," said Polis.
Polis compared staying at home and reducing social interactions to starting a diet or healthy weight loss program with a specific goal in mind.
"It's kind of like a diet, you can eat right and exercise for two months, which we did and then if you just go back to your old habits, you can't expect to keep the weight off. If you do that, it's got to be sustainable for the long term if you want to maintain progress," said Polis.
Polis also called attention to first responders, doctors, nurses, technicians, maintenance workers and other staff on National Nurses' Day and thanked them for all their hard work and dedication during the pandemic.
Laura Rosenthal, a Registered Nurse for more than 20 years, talked about coronavirus during the Governor's news conference and how she has never seen anything like this before in all her years in health care.
"It is not an old people disease, nor a sick people disease, and although these populations are more susceptible to COVID-19. It affects all people. In the past six weeks, I have treated patients as young as 25. And as old as 99," said Rosenthal. "There is still the potential for a rapid increase in disease spread, if we're not alert to our surroundings. I ask for your continued commitment to staying at home as much as possible, and follow safer phases through by using face coverings out in public, continued physical distancing and not gathering in public. There will eventually be a time when we can do this again. But we are not quite ready now."
Polis also talked about personal protective equipment, or PPE, distribution in Colorado. The majority of PPE, nearly 40%, will be distributed among first responders with the next highest percentage being given to hospitals, followed by long-term care facilities and home care.
