On Friday, Polis said he remained confident that state hospitals were able to cope with any increase in cases. He attributed the increase in the percentage of positive cases to a small number of people requesting tests during the holidays.
In the week of December 26, when the increase in positivity began, only 150,000 tests were performed in the state, down from over 250,000 in the previous week.
The governor said it was the right time to move to a less restrictive position, “as soon as the hospital’s capacity showed enough space.”
He said hospitalizations fell from more than 1,600 at the end of November to just under 900 hospitalizations in January. That, he said, means “we can have a more sustainable way of living in Colorado from a social, emotional and economic perspective, while monitoring real-time health data every day.”
Dining at restaurants and other indoor activities are inherently risky
But while Polis expresses strong faith in both the effectiveness and delivery of vaccines, its decision to allow the restaurant indoors, in the face of research into how easily the virus spreads in this circumstance, even limited to 25 percent of capacity or 50 people, experts seem to be risky.
“It seems like a bold move,” said Dr. S. Patrick Kachur, a public health physician at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
He said New York City was facing similar tensions over the reopening of businesses, including restaurants, after the virus was brought under control after a brutal peak last spring.
But Kachur says that confined spaces, artificial ventilation, loud speech, the inability of people to wear masks while eating make the indoor table “a very risky situation and I think we need to be careful about decisions that affect the indoor restaurant.” .
The Colorado coronavirus forecasting team was not consulted until the governor eased the rules.
“We were not involved in that political decision, no,” said Dr. Jonathan Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health.
But he said these calls are inherently difficult.
“I think the question of when to start easing policy measures that improve transmission control is a very difficult challenge,” Samet said. “So I understand the state and the governor, in particular, draw a fine line between protecting public health and ensuring the economic health of the state.”