Gov. Jared Polis on Friday announced a series of orders meant to give more financial support to small businesses, homeowners, renters and taxpayers as the novel coronavirus puts a heavy strain on Colorado’s economy.
These measures include extending deadlines for filing tax returns, expediting unemployment claims, deferring consumer loan payments and helping small businesses receive loans to stay afloat. Polis also urged state resources not be used to enforce evictions, encouraging local law enforcement to focus on bigger things.
“If people are going to stay in their homes, they need to be able to have a home,” the governor said at a news conference at the state Capitol. “The spread of the virus is not your fault. You should not lose your home or your utilities simply because a restaurant shut down.”
His economic reassurances come as health officials on Friday announced 86 new cases of COVID-19, the highly infection respiratory illness caused by the virus, bringing to 366 the total number of confirmed cases statewide. Public health officials, however, have stressed that hundreds if not thousands more Coloradans are infected.
Forty-four people are hospitalized from the virus and four Coloradans have died, including two people on Thursday. The state has now tested nearly 3,700 people as it attempts to check residents in all corners of the state to gauge the virus’s true spread. Colorado officials have admitted that testing is still not where it needs to be.
On top of these reprieves for homeowners and renters announced Friday, Polis said he’s temporarily allowing Colorado restaurants and bars to provide alcohol in take-out and delivery orders.
The governor also announced a new economic council to offer guidance for the state, chaired by former Denver mayor Federico Peña. The council will focus on covering medical costs, paid sick leave, testing, treatment and training workers for new jobs.
“This is unique,” Peña said. “The challenge we face is extraordinary.”
Colorado’s COVID-19 Relief Fund, announced Wednesday, has raised $3.8 million from more than 2,000 individuals donors, Polis said. Another 4,300 people have volunteered their time and skills to help during the crisis. People are still urged to go to helpcoloradonow.org to donate their time and money.
Polis on Friday would not commit to a shelter-in-place order, even as some other communities — including the entire states of California, New York and Illinois — have taken steps to more tightly restrict movement. San Miguel County, home to Telluride, on Wednesday became the first Colorado county to give the order, which still allows people to get necessary groceries and take walks outside. The order prohibits all events with more than 10 people, and directs all business activities in the county to cease “except for minimum basic operations and essential services.”
On Thursday, Polis suspended elective surgeries and extended restaurant and bar closures to April 30. He also ordered the closure of hair and nail salons, spas, tattoo and massage parlors as more and more nonessential businesses have been shuttered in the face of the widespread epidemic.
The state is also attempting to ramp up testing in the face of limited resources. Health officials, with help from the National Guard, have instituted a roving testing unit, which is going around the state to provide testing in communities that have seen little of it so far.
On Saturday, that mobile testing site comes to Chaffee County, where residents who are symptomatic and have a doctor’s order can show up to the Chaffee County Fairgrounds, 10165 County Road 120, Salida, between noon and 4 p.m. for the test.
The first 100 people in line will have access to the drive-up testing; all other vehicles that arrive after that will be encouraged to seek testing from a private provider, the state said in a news release.
Friday did bring some good news for 39 Coloradans stuck in federal quarantine out of state after their cruise ship was inundated by 20 cases of COVID-19. The residents, who were all aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship, landed in Denver on Friday afternoon and were whisked away to their homes across the metro area to finish their quarantines. None of them have any of the novel coronavirus’s symptoms, a state health department news release said.
The ship was initially barred from docking in California as reports came out about illness on the ship. California Gov. Gavin Newsom eventually assured the public that none of the passengers from the cruise ship would be released into the public before undergoing a 14-day quarantine.
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