On November 27th at 5pm Colorado Springs moved into Level Red on the Covid 19 scale, with the state having an increasingly high number of cases which currently being at 231,000 state wide and 31.111 total cases in El Paso County alone. With these drastic increases in cases, hospitalizations and deaths have also increased at an alarming rate and continue to grow. Also, hospitals are being filled to the brim with Covid patients and some hospitals are even becoming scarcely low on the room they have to support the surge in numbers with an average of 9.5 people being admitted each day. With the constant addition of patients with Covid, hospitals are now trying to find different sites and buildings in order to be able to care for these patients.
As we move into the red zone, here are some restrictions that this entails. For restaurants there is no more indoor dining, however all other aspects of restaurants including outdoor patio dining, and take out is still allowed. Child care such as Kinder Care or Colorado Springs Day care will remain open for the time being. For schools from K-12 it is suggested that they do hybrid or all online learning, and high schools individually go all online and have in person meetings if necessary. Offices and gyms are only at 10% capacity, while places of worship, healthcare settings, outdoor seated events, and personal services are all at 25% capacity. If you participate in club sports or camps it all has to be virtual or teams can assemble in groups of 10 outdoors. Also, masks are required at all times in public and in public indoor places such as the grocery store. As El Paso County moves into the red zone we are at risk, if numbers continue to increase at a high rate, to move into the purple zone on the Covid-19 scale. If this were to happen life would be like it was when we were in April and May. Gyms and restaurants would have to close and unless considered essential, all companies would proceed to go back online.
As we find our way back to where we started only months ago, please be mindful and try to do your part in keeping those around you safe, in order to further along the recovery so we can get our lives back to somewhat normal and being able to see and interact with each other without a mask or six feet between us!