Many of you are likely seeing other counties within Colorado, and states around the country, announce “Shelter in Place” or “Stay at Home” orders. You might be wondering why Summit County has not taken steps to announce these public protective actions. The answer is that we already have. For example, the “Stay at Home” order that the mayor of Denver announced yesterday includes protective measures that Summit County enacted through a public health order on March 16. In fact, our current order is more restrictive than Denver’s, in that public transportation and guest lodging are prohibited within Summit County but not in Denver.

When Summit County Public Health announced our restrictions last week, we observed best practices and lessons learned from around the world to take an aggressive stance in slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus in our community. Key factors in this early decision were our vulnerability as a global travel destination, and our desire to minimize the long-term health and economic impacts that widespread infection would have. As jurisdictions around the country begin to enact these more stringent public health orders, please understand that by taking the lead early on, Summit County remains one of the most proactive jurisdictions in the country when it comes to the fight against this global pandemic and its impacts in our community.