Denver mayor announces new 'Home by 10' public health order
DENVER — Mayor Michael Hancock announced a new public health order November 6 called “Home by 10.” The order will restrict nighttime business hours, particularly for bars, clubs, and restaurants, as well as “urge residents to be in their own homes” by 10 p.m.
A spokesperson for the mayor told Rocky Mountain PBS that they do not want to “correlate” this public health order with the curfews that were implemented this summer in response to protests. “This is a health order, not a law enforcement order,” the spokesperson said. “And we need people to do the right thing.”
In addition to limiting business hours and urging people to be home by 10 p.m., the public health order also:
- Prohibits spectators at college and high school athletic events
- Halts recreational athletic events
- Will close bars that do not meet “basic criteria around mingling and food service” for 30 days
The mayor said there would be more "aggressive enforcement" of this order than previous public health orders.
The “Home by 10” order takes effect Sunday, November 8, and will remain in effect for at least 30 days. “Obviously we are aware that Thanksgiving falls within this timeframe. And we’re not going to sit here and tell you that Thanksgiving is canceled in Denver,” Hancock said. “But I’m going to urge everyone to think differently about Thanksgiving this year.”
Hancock said hospitalizations in Colorado have increased over 40% in just the last week. He added that the state has the sixth highest increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the country.
“We’ve bent the epi [short for epidemic] curve once before, and we need to do it again,” Hancock said. “We bent the epi curve with a stay at home order earlier in the year and it was successful because our residents understood it was a public health order designed to save lives. Another stay at home order is still in the tool box, particularly if there is any significant risk that our healthcare system could be overwhelmed.”
At the current rate the virus is spreading, Colorado is projected to exceed its ICU capacity in late December. “Our healthcare system will be at risk if we stay on our current path of disease transmission,” state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said in a press conference November 5.
Hancock said if the trend continues, there is another stay at home order in Denver’s future unless “we act with urgency and care for one another to change the behavior that is leading to these increasing cases.”
On October 27, Hancock announced that Denver would be moving to Level Orange, the second-most restrictive level behind a stay at home order. On November 4, Denver reported 547 new COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day case count since the beginning of the pandemic. In the press conference Friday, Denver Public Health Executive Director Bob McDonald said the county saw almost 700 new cases in the last 24 hour period.
As of November 5, the seven-day moving average of new cases is just under 419 cases a day, which is also a record high.
Explore the latest COVID-19 data in Denver below. Statewide statistics are available here.
