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Headlines April 7, 2020

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Headlines April 7, 2020 KGNU News

On Monday night Governor Jared Polis addressed the state and said he was extending the current stay at home order for 2 weeks. The order was set to expire on April 11 and now remains in effect until at least April 26.

“If there’s any way to safely end it sooner I will,” said Polis, and he added that if Coloradoans aren’t staying at home and the numbers of dead and dying continue to pile up, the stay at home order could be extended for longer.

Last night’s announcement came just hours after Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced that he was extended the city’s stay at home order until April 30.

The Denver order has been in effect since March 24th and was also set to expire on April 11th.

On Monday, Hancock thanked Denver residents for staying home and cited current data and advice from experts about the spread of COVID 19. He added that extending the stay at home order would protect the health of as many people as possible.

The Denverite reports that to date the city has issued 14 citations for violations of the stay at home order, issued more than 1700 warnings and made over 6000 contacts with businesses and residents over compliance.

There are over 760 confirmed cases and 20 fatalities as a result of COVID 19 in Denver alone.

Statewide there are more than 5100 cases and 150 people have died. But public health officials estimate that between 17 and 18 thousand people in Colorado actually have COVID 19.

Rachel Herlihy, the state epidemiologist, said Monday that the social distancing measures enacted statewide have led to a slowing in the spread of transmission. Right now it is estimated that the number of cases is doubling every 6 days, but she said they’ll know more in the coming days about when cases will peak.

“To best prepare our healthcare system and ensure we have adequate PPE, ventilators, supplies, hospital beds, ideally we would like to see that curve flattened and that peak later so that our system is best prepared.”

Modeling being used by state officials show the peak sometime between May 8 and Sept. 14, depending on the effectiveness of social-distancing measures such as the statewide stay-at-home order.

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Headlines April 7, 2020 KGNU News

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Denver mayor Michael Hancock today announced new measures that the city would take to help those experiencing homelessness during the Corona Virus crisis.

Speaking earlier today, Mayor Hancock said that Governor Polis had agreed to the city’s request to have members of the National Guard help with the effort. 250 members of the National Guard will be deployed to existing shelters to support the staff and those staying there.

The city has already opened a recreation center that is being used as a day shelter for up to 200 women. They opened a 48 bed facility for people who have symptoms of COVID 19 and they have made 120 motel rooms available for respite care, as well as additional rooms for families. Hancock said that 97 of those rooms that were identified for respite care, were occupied Monday night.

Mayor Hancock says that the city last night finalized a contract for an additional 150 hotel rooms to be able to be used to house those experiencing homelessness.

In the coming days, the city of Denver will be opening an auxiliary shelter to provide 24/7 services and physical distancing needs for individuals experiencing homelessness. This auxiliary shelter will have the capacity for up to 600 men, and individuals identifying as men, and will be established at the National Western Complex, Hall of Education.

The University of Colorado in Boulder today announced that it is launching a fundraising campaign to support students, faculty members and staff members impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic. The university says it will match up to $1.6 million in donations.

The campaign is called Buffs Together and includes emergency funds for students and university employees in need of food, housing, health care as well as technology for online learning.