Coronavirus Pandemic: Mayor Hancock Explains What It Would Take To Rollback Reopening In Denver
DENVER (CBS4) -- On Friday, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock urged people not to gather in large groups, and outlined the metrics that will determine whether the city will have to "pause" or even rollback reopening.
"As of July 3rd, our positivity rate is 4.5%... this is very, very concerning... the WHO says the positivity rate needs to stay below 5%," Mayor Hancock stated.
"If we see confirmed cases start doubling over two weeks, or our positivity rate reaches 7%, or hospitalization rates increase to 20% -- and we're at 11% as of July, 3 -- and hospital capacity reaches 90% occupied -- and today we're at 72%," Hancock said.
"We'll have to seriously consider pausing, or even rolling back our reopening. That will be absolutely devastating to our economy, maybe even more so than when we had to freeze the economy back in March," Hancock said. "We simply want to avoid that, want to avoid more job losses in our economy, particularly when we work so hard to maintain, to grab this momentum and to get on the other side of this curve."
"No one wants to pause or go backwards. In addition to face masks, of course, we ask everyone to continue to social distancing and frequent hand washing," Hancock stated.
