State releases guidelines for ‘5 star’ program

Colo. (KRDO) -- Wednesday, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released guidelines for the 5 Star State Certification Program.

Businesses that become certified through this program are required to implement safety measures beyond what is already required by public health orders and guidelines. If businesses are able to meet these stricter standards, they will be able to expand operations.

Eligibility capacity levels are dependent on the county's current dial level:

• Level Green: Counties already have an automatic capacity increase built into the Protect Our Neighbors framework.
• Level Blue: Eligible if a county's incidence, percent positivity, and hospitalizations all meet the blue level. If approved, certified businesses can operate with an additional 50 people added to their cap.
• Level Yellow: Eligible if a county's incidence, percent positivity, and hospitalizations all meet the yellow level. Certified businesses can operate at blue capacity levels.
• Level Orange: Eligible if a county's incidence, percent positivity, and hospitalizations all meet the orange level. Certified businesses can operate at yellow capacity levels.
• Level Red: Counties in level red are eligible only if that county has had a two week sustained decline in incidence, percent positivity, and hospitalizations. Certified businesses can operate at orange capacity levels.
• Level Purple: Counties are not eligible for the variance program.

CDPHE will begin accepting applications for the variance program beginning Friday, Dec. 18. Businesses can find that application here.

However, if a county sees a significant rise in cases or hospitalizations, the State says the program could be suspended. All variances are automatically suspended for a particular region if it reaches more than 90% of their county's ICU hospital capacity.

For El Paso and Pueblo Counties, if approved, it could mean restaurants will be able to once again open their dining rooms which is allowed under level Orange.

However, there is a catch. Rachel Beck the Vice President for the Colorado Chamber and EDC says businesses will have to implement even stricter guidelines than the ones they're already observing.

"Right now, you have to have six feet of distance between say tables in a restaurant, under this program there would have to be ten," Beck says which is why the Chamber and County are worried that going through all these changes may be too difficult to accomplish.

Beck says, "We want to make sure that we have a program that businesses can understand and that they can easily implement." Another issue with this program is that county COVID-19 levels can change after two weeks.

"They don't know from two week period to two week period if or how they are going to be able to operate and so it is tremendously difficult for businesses to do any sort of planning," Beck says.

El Paso County Commissioner Stan Vanderwerf believes there are a few issues with this program. One of them, each restaurant would need a pre-inspection before opening day. "We have 2,000 restaurants in El Paso County," Vanderwerf says, "we don't know where we would find the inspectors at this point."

But both Vanderwerf and Beck say a program like this needs to happen to keep struggling businesses open. They hope the state will consider restrictions that won't be impossible to implement.

Earlier this month, the State Department of Revenue said that surveys conducted showed that the majority of Colorado businesses follow COVID-19 protocols. Over the Thanksgiving Weekend only two out of 204 businesses received suspensions over dangerous conditions.