Colorado Springs churches prepare for Easter services as COVID cases rise

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Colorado Springs churches are preparing for Easter services this weekend as El Paso County health officials are reporting a slight uptick in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

New Life Church is holding 18 services this coming weekend and their senior pastor expects one of their largest turnouts since the pandemic began.

"This year is going to be a great amount of excitement around the city. A lot of pastors feel like that their church is going to show back up," Pastor Brady Boyd said.

Boyd is encouraging those who wish to attend services at New Life to show up early but says no one wishing to worship this weekend will be turned away.

"Last year we were all having to watch online and it was sort of a downer. Probably the biggest downer of our time last year was not being together for Easter Sunday. It was the first time in my life that I had to not gather with the church on Easter Sunday," Boyd said.

New Life Church plans to uphold social distancing and other pandemic safety guidelines for its in-person services across Colorado Springs. Church leaders also plan to stream services online for those who can't attend.

"We're not going to get reckless just because it's Easter Sunday. So we're still trying to be safe, but we do expect overflow crowds," Boyd said.

Heading into Easter weekend, health officials say El Paso County isn't where it needs to be to loosen COVID-19 dial restrictions yet.

"Right now we're still in yellow. In order to get to blue, we need that positivity to be at 5%. It was there for 10 days but recently, unfortunately, it has sort of had a slow uptick," epidemiologist Fadi Youkhana said.

While Colorado Springs area hospitals are still reporting good capacity, officials note there has also been an increase in coronavirus hospitalizations too.

The other key to opening back up is lowering the county's incidence rate. El Paso County currently has a seven-day average of 141 people out of 100,000 people testing positive for COVID-19.

"This Monday we are further from blue than we were last Monday, and we want to get closer and closer. To do that, we need to get our incidence to below 100," Youkhana said.

The El Paso County Public Health Department says is still waiting for Easter weekend pandemic guidance from state health officials.