Since the announcement that Mesa County qualified for the Protect Our Neighbors phase of reopening there has been some confusion about the status and what is allowed under this latest phase of reopening in the COVID-19 response.
Protect Our Neighbors is community-specific, and different communities will be at different phases, based on local conditions and capabilities. Mesa County Public Health (MCPH) has advocated for this type of local control, it’s one of the reasons we were among the first to be given this designation. The current local public health order outlines this next phase of reopening. The public health order supports Mesa County’s efforts to continue to open gradually and allows:
- All industries (all types of businesses, establishments, and activities) may operate at 50% of normal capacity.
- Indoor occupancy is capped at 500 people.
Requirements under the public health order include (but are not limited to):
- Use of cloth face coverings over the nose and mouth for interactions where physical distancing is not possible or when entering and moving throughout indoor public places.
- Last call for alcohol sales in restaurants and in on-premises retail liquor establishments can be no later than midnight.
This new phase does not mean that illness from COVID-19 is gone from our community, or that businesses will be able to operate exactly as they did before the pandemic. “We continue to work alongside numerous community partners to ensure our businesses can operate, our students can learn, and our community is healthy,” Jeff Kuhr, Executive Director, Mesa County Public Health said. “We’re working toward a full reopening together, but we’re not there yet. The support of our entire community is essential in our efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.”
Residents, visitors, and anyone in Mesa County must follow the local order which is not interchangeable with the State’s order. All community members are strongly encouraged to visit the Mesa County Public Health website and read the entire public health order and outlined guidelines that are broken down by industry. We all must do our part to ensure success, and ask all residents of Mesa County to voluntarily comply.