State health officials say Larimer County's COVID-19 variance will stay in place for now

Larimer County’s variance from some state COVID-19 restrictions will remain in place because the number of positive cases in the county has stabilized.

On July 17, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment told the county health department its variance, which allows for greater occupancy in restaurants and places of worship than state rules, was in danger of being revoked because of a spike in cases.

The county created a mitigation plan aimed at stabilizing and reducing daily increases in cases. State officials monitored the county’s numbers for two weeks and decided the variance could continue.

The state will check back in a few weeks, said Katie O’Donnell, spokesperson for the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment.

“They’re still monitoring,” she said. “I think our biggest thing is if our cases get over 100 per 100,000 — we’re sitting at 75 right now — then we will have everything back up in the air again.”

COVID in Colorado tracker:Larimer + state case, death and hospital data for August

The health department would prefer to see case numbers go down, but for now stopping the continuous rise in cases is a positive step, O’Donnell said.

Officials seem to have taken into account that the wide fluctuation in daily reports of cases in Larimer County is a reflection of data dumps of testing information from the state that affect the county’s risk indicators, O’Donnell said.

The county’s risk threshold is 25 new cases per day: On Monday, four cases were reported; on Tuesday, 30 were reported.

On Wednesday, 13 cases were reported, according to a county website.

O’Donnell said the county “is not off the hook, but this is good news for now.”

The county’s mitigation plan called for strong community education and outreach, enforcement and compliance plans for face coverings, social distancing, and following the required guidelines for businesses, according to a press release. 

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“I appreciate our unified efforts to suppress the spread of COVID-19 in Larimer County,” said Tom Gonzales, public health director for Larimer County. “We have regrouped and stabilized our case rate.

“But we must all continue to take this seriously and be diligent with handwashing, face coverings and social distancing. We must continue to slow our cases to keep NoCo open at our current capacity.”

Kevin Duggan is a senior columnist and reporter. Contact him at kevinduggan@coloradoan.com. Support his work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.