Mask mandates ending in Denver, Adams and Arapahoe counties as COVID cases fall

Denver and two major metro counties will drop their mask mandates for businesses and indoor public spaces later this week, a move Mayor Michael Hancock called a “pivot point in this battle” against COVID-19 as the surge fueled by the omicron variant wanes.

The Tri-County Health Department on Monday went a step further than Denver, though, dropping mask requirements for schools in Adams and Arapahoe county as well.

In a news briefing Monday morning, Hancock acknowledged the pandemic — which is nearing its third year — remains a public health emergency, and said face coverings still will be required for the foreseeable future in certain settings in Denver, including in K-12 schools and day care facilities, as well as on public transportation.

But, he said, “This virus is something we’re going to have to manage and learn to live with.”

Masks have been required in indoor public places in most of the metro area since late November as officials in Denver, Jefferson, Adams and Arapahoe counties enacted mandates to stem the spread of the virus and combat rising COVID-19 hospitalizations during the wave caused by the delta variant.

Denver’s “vax or mask” mandate — which the city extended as omicron overtook delta in Colorado — allowed businesses that didn’t want to require masks to instead only admit people who showed proof they were vaccinated against the virus. That order was set to expire on Thursday and will not be renewed.

“Beginning Friday, people will no longer be required under the public health order to wear a mask or show proof of vaccination for entry into a place of business in Denver,” Hancock said

The Tri-County Health Department followed suit a few hours after Denver, with the agency’s board of health voting 5-1 to end its mask mandate for public indoor spaces. But Tri-County’s board also is ending mandatory masks inside schools.

The mask orders will be lifted at the end of the day Friday and the decision applies across Arapahoe and Adams counties.

Tri-County Executive Director John Douglas cited an “unprecedentedly dramatic drop” in COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks, along with a decline in hospitalizations, for his recommendation to end the mask measures.

The metro counties are reviewing their face-covering requirements this week following continued declines in new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and the rate at which tests are coming back positive. Last week, the state health department said its vaccination requirement for large, indoor events will end.

Colorado recorded 40,095 new cases of COVID-19 last week, down from the nearly 69,000 cases the previous week. Hospitalizations of people with the virus continue to drop as 1,300 people with confirmed COVID-19 were in hospitals statewide Monday, according to data from the state Department of Public Health and Environment.

The number of people who died with COVID-19 rose during the first two weeks of January, the first increases following the decline out of the delta wave’s November peak. According to state data, 175 people with COVID-19 died during the first week of January and 196 died the second week. Because death reports lag, it’s too soon to compare more recent weeks.

So far, more than 11,500 Coloradans have died due to the virus, according to the state health department.

Colorado’s state modeling team predicts COVID-19 cases will decrease through February. But transmission remains high, with the team estimating last week that one in 19 Coloradans were contagious and that many people likely will still get infected over the next month even as cases decline.

Modeling has shown that lifting the mask mandate in Denver will not affect the trajectory of the current drop in COVID-19 cases, Bob McDonald, executive director of the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, said during Monday’s briefing.

“Omicron has run out of fuel,” he said.

Students in Denver schools and day cares are still required to wear masks because children under 5 are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccines and face coverings help keep kids in class by reducing the scenarios under which they have to quarantine at home after being exposed to the virus, McDonald said.

Getting vaccinated remains the best protection against the virus, Hancock said.

“The reason there’s still uncertainty around this pandemic is because there’s still too many people who are unvaccinated,” he said.

The Tri-County Health Department met Monday to discuss whether to extend its mask requirement for schools and child care facilities in Adams and Arapahoe counties.  And Jefferson County’s Board of Health will hold a meeting Thursday to consider whether to lift the county’s mask requirement, including in schools.

Douglas, the head of Tri-County, said the seven-day incidence rate had dropped from more than 1,400 daily coronavirus cases just two weeks ago to fewer than 600 cases a day this week. The peak of cases, he said, was Jan. 11, when 1,800 were recorded.

“Everyone’s moving the same way,” Douglas said. Intensive care beds, he said, have become much more available in the 10-county area making up north-central Colorado, including metro Denver. Since mid-January, he said there’s been the “greatest sustained increase in hospital capacity” in many months.

He credited widespread infection from the highly contagious omicron variant with the sharply dropping number of new cases in Colorado.

“We probably have peaked and it’s probably going to decline rapidly,” Douglas said.

He said 80% of Coloradans should be immune to omicron, either through vaccination or infection, by the middle of February.

Jefferson County Public Health said in a statement that discussions about ending mask mandates are steps “toward a sustainable, safe off-ramp for public health mitigation measures, as our community works to transition to treating COVID-19 as an endemic disease — meaning one that is present, but controlled, in our community.”

Boulder, which mandated face coverings in September ahead of the other metro counties, did not answer a question about whether it is reconsidering its order.

“(The health department) is constantly evaluating important public health metrics, including the severity and impact of omicron, the availability of treatments to all age groups, and the availability of testing and high-quality masks,” said Angela Simental, spokeswoman for Boulder County Public Health, in an email. “At this time, the order remains in effect for all indoor public spaces.”

Counties outside of the metro area have moved to rescind mask mandates as well. Summit County ended its order last week, and Larimer County announced Monday that its mask rule will expire Feb. 12.