RIO GRANDE COUNTY- As of Nov. 27, Rio Grande County has now moved to the level Orange on the Colorado State COVID dial and will be implementing restrictions immediately. This news came after the county confirmed that it was now moving from yellow, cautionary, to orange, which is more stringent, just after the Thanksgiving holiday. The decision was made by CDPHE to move to more restrictive regulations in light of a recent increase in positive case numbers. “CDPHE forced us into moving to orange and we are working on the last part of our mitigation plan in order to lessen restrictions on local businesses,” said Commissioner Gene Glover.

According to Glover the county is communicating with CDPHE on a daily basis, trying to find a way to keep the county from shutting down. “The fact of the matter is that we are not a front range community. For instance, we might have 45,000 people in an 83,000 acre area and they have 45,000 people in three blocks. We should not be handled the same as some of those more congested areas.”
Several businesses throughout the county received a letter from CDPHE explaining the change and alerting businesses of the consequences if they do not comply. Several business owners have expressed frustration, stating that the county should be held to different restrictions because case numbers are no where near what they are in other locations across the state. Rio Grande County is reporting 54 active cases as of Monday, Nov. 30.

In the letter received by businesses, restaurants and other establishments, CDPHE clearly states that to not comply with the new regulations, it could mean losing business licenses and the right to operate in any capacity. This has caused some concern in the business community.

In the letter issued by CDPHE it states, “Our state is facing a significant public health crisis, and these orders are for the purpose of the health and safety of all Coloradoans. The State is prepared to enforce its orders through available regulatory and legal actions. Businesses that ignore or willfully violate the executive orders or public health orders put their business license at risk of administrative actions, which may include suspension, revocation, fines and/or cancellation in accordance with applicable statutes and regulations.”

When asked about the decision to move to orange status Glover explained the numbers and what occurred, “I believe some of the positive case numbers from a local testing that was completed in the middle of November were reported to the state late. We are going to see several of those numbers drop off of our positive case count in upcoming days because their quarantine is over. We have already submitted the first portion of our mitigation plan to the state and our Public Health Director, Dr. Bankole, is working to finalize the plan. We are working in the best interest of our county and will do everything we can to keep from shutting down.”

“I tell CDPHE every time we are in contact that our businesses cannot survive another shutdown. We have people who have spent their entire lives working to create something that they survive on, we can’t ask them to forfeit that. They can’t forfeit that.”

The Rio Grande County Commissioners are working closely with Public Health and CDPHE to find a solution other than shutting businesses down again and will be reporting updates as they become available.