Dial 3.0 UPDATE
With the State of Colorado’s revamp of the COVID Dial and tweaking of the metrics used to determine levels, as of March 24th Hinsdale County has moved from Blue on the old version of the Dial to Green on the updated model. Mineral County continues at Blue on the Dial. While some capacity limits and restrictions remain the same for now, other limits have either been expanded or discarded all together.
Some of the notable changes for Hinsdale County include:
• Restaurants having no State mandated capacity restrictions.
• Gyms and fitness centers with no capacity limits.
• Bars can be opened with 50% capacity limit.
• Indoor seated and unseated events continue to have 50% limits but now have a cap of 500
people (whichever is fewer).
• Outdoor seated and unseated events have no state mandated capacity limits.
Changes for Mineral County include:
• Restaurants open at 100% but maintaining 6’ distancing between parties.
• Bars can be open with 25% capacity limit.
• Indoor seated events allowed at 50% capacity.
• Outdoor seated and unseated events have no state mandated capacity limits.
These changes reflect the State of Colorado’s optimism concerning the decline of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and a focused vaccination roll-out. The Silver Thread Public Health District (STPHD) shares this optimism yet cautions, just because restrictions are starting to lift, does not mean we are completely out of the woods with this pandemic yet. COVID-19 is still present in Colorado as variant strains are starting to emerge and become more dominant. Vaccines will drastically reduce the prevalence of the COVID-19 virus as well as reduce serious illness and hospitalizations. However, we still have a long way to go in order to get our populations vaccinated.
Public Health wants to remind people to stay diligent with wearing facial coverings, avoiding crowded areas especially indoors, maintain physical distancing, practice good hygiene by washing hands often and sanitizing.
We still need everyone to do their part in protecting our neighbors: Stay home when feeling sick, if you experience symptoms please get tested, and get a vaccine when you are able.
Further information about these Dial changes, how to get a vaccine, and other COVID-19 news can be found at our page on Local Data.
Colorado’s public health order requiring the wearing of masks in public indoor spaces remains in place for now.
