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Pueblo announces end to curfew, start of neighborhood alerts for COVID-19 in wastewater

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- Two pandemic-related developments Wednesday included the end of one restriction and the announcement of what Mayor Nick Gradisar called "an early neighborhood COVID warning system."

During an afternoon news conference, Gradisar said he was stopping the overnight curfew that he mandated two months ago, in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus in bars and other locations.

The move comes as positive case have fallen over the past two weeks.

"I'm hoping that trend will continue," Gradisar said. "If we see some different activity, I certainly reserve the right to re-impose the curfew. But my intent at this point is to not re-impose the curfew."

The mayor was asked if he thought the curfew worked overall, even though some of the city's highest COVID numbers came during it.

"I think it worked," he said. "It's hard to say how much it helped to bring our numbers down. But it did limit people's movement. If we hadn't had the curfew, our numbers might have been even worse."

Gradisar also revealed that, as early as next month, the city will start a reverse 911 alert to neighborhoods having high levels of the virus in wastewater.

"We've been testing wastewater in our seven basins since August," he said. "We sent the results to Colorado State University. The testing revealed that there was a strong correlation with high virus levels in wastewater and a high number of positive COVID cases."

The mayor said when virus levels spike in wastewater, affected neighborhoods will receive a reverse 911 alert from the police department's emergency operations center.

"Residents will be reminded to wear a mask, practice social distancing and asked to get a free COVID test at one of our two locations," he said. "They also will be asked to isolate themselves until they get their test results back."

Gradisar said the system hopefully will provide early warning and allow residents to take steps necessary to protect themselves.

"It gives us five days of lead time," he said. "It could help get testing done sooner and reduce the risk of community spread."

The mayor said around 20 communities are doing wastewater testing but Pueblo is the only one that is taking the added step of including an alert system.

"As for the variant of COVID-19 that has turned up in Colorado, I don't think it'll be detected in wastewater," he said. "I think it'll show up as just COVID-19. If spikes in the wastewater lead to more being tested, I think we have the capacity to handle it."

Article Topic Follows: Coronavirus

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Scott Harrison

Scott is a reporter for KRDO. Learn more about Scott here.

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