What changes Friday in El Paso County as state’s COVID-19 dial framework ends?
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- With Colorado health officials relaxing COVID-19 restrictions for businesses and events starting Friday, and El Paso County deciding against implementing additional restrictions, we're investigating what really changes and what it all means to us.
KRDO NewsChannel 13 spoke with county health officials and businesses for their perspective.
Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said that the phasing out of the state's COVID-19 dial framework doesn't mean that we can now stop wearing our masks, because the state's mask mandate remains in effect through at least the first week of May.
But officials confirmed that in El Paso County, at least, restaurants and other businesses may return to full seating capacity and end the six-foot social distancing requirement for customers -- the two most damaging mandates businesses received from the state.
"It doesn't mean the pandemic is over but we're hoping the worst of it is," said Dirk Draper, head of the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce. "As for how soon it'll take for businesses to return to normal, we don't know yet. But they can have reason for optimism now."
Dr. Robin Johnson, medical director for El Paso County Health, said that the relaxed restrictions show how much progress has been made in the year-long fight against the virus.
"Unless we start demonstrating significant increases in (COVID) numbers, or pressures on our hospital systems, we should have no need to bring back the COVID dial."
Johnson strongly recommends that we continue following established health safety guidelines to limit the spread of the virus and avoid renewed restrictions.
Sonia Riggs, head of the Colorado Restaurant Association, supports the relaxed restrictions but voiced some concern about them.
"(They are) probably going to cause some confusion not only with restaurants but also their guests," she said. "That's why we're doing everything we can to try to get word out as quickly as possible, as things are changing."
But just because restaurants are free to return to full seating capacity, doesn't mean they can.
"Remember that many still aren't at full capacity," said Jay Gust, who owns four local restaurants. "If 100 customers came in at once, we couldn't handle that. We're going to ease back into it gradually. That's easier to do at a smaller restaurant than a larger one. We're asking customers to continue making reservations so that we know what to expect, until our staffing levels are back to normal."
Jim Beall and his family ate at one of Gust's restaurants Friday.
"We travel into the Springs from Woodland Park," he said. "So when we come down here, we usually want to stay for a few hours. Knowing that restaurants will have the capacity to seat us, makes it a lot easier for us to spend the day down here."
Many restaurant owners had said that they'd close permanently if not allowed to have at least 75% capacity by the end of spring.
For more details, visit: https://www.elpasocountyhealth.org/news/news-release/2021/el-paso-county-moves-to-less-covid-19-restrictions-for-events-and-businesses.
