As Delta overtakes Colorado, nursing homes and school districts bring back mask mandates

Aug 05, 2021

DENVER — The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) issued new guidance August 3, resurrecting familiar mandates in the state’s nursing homes: masks must be worn by all residents, staff and visitors, regardless of vaccine status.

Long-term care facilities will also have to test fully vaccinated people who experience close contact with a COVID-positive person.

The news comes as Colorado and the nation deal with a new surge in COVID-19 cases due largely to the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus that is responsible for more than 95% of new cases in Colorado.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recently issued updated guidance, recommending that people in areas of “substantial or high transmission” of COVID-19 wear masks inside whether they’re vaccinated or not. Most Colorado counties meet that criteria.

Randy Kuykendall, the director of health facilities and the EMS division at CDPHE, said the new CDC guidance was a motivating factor for Colorado’s renewed nursing home rules.

“As we look to decrease new COVID-19 cases, additional or more stringent infection prevention measures may be necessary at times and our experts will continue to monitor virus data so we can make mitigation decisions that best fit Colorado’s residential care facilities,” Kuykendall added in a news release.

According to The COVID Tracking Project from The Atlantic magazine, more than 2,500 Coloradans in long-term care facilities have died from COVID-19. In January, COVID-19 vaccines allowed for loosening restrictions and more visitations in long-term care facilities. But the highly contagious Delta variant and plateauing vaccination numbers have led to more cases, and therefore more restrictions.

Data obtained by Rocky Mountain PBS show that while 91% of the state's long-term care facility residents are vaccinated, just 71% of staff are.

New evidence suggests the Delta variant is more contagious than Ebola and just as contagious as chickenpox. And while the data backs up Governor Jared Polis’ assertion that this is “largely a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” breakthrough cases—when a fully vaccinated person tests positive for COVID-19—are becoming more common in Colorado. State epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said that between July 1 and July 24, Colorado confirmed 2,074 breakthrough cases—about 20% of all COVID-19 cases in that time frame.

The CDC guidance and prevalence of the Delta variant have led to more restrictions or mandates elsewhere in Colorado.

In Denver, for example, Mayor Michael Hancock introduced a new health order requiring all city employees, including some private sector workers in high-risk settings like nursing homes, to be fully vaccinated by September 30.

Denver is not currently requiring masks indoors. The neighboring Tri-County Health Department, which serves over 25 percent of Colorado’s population, recommends mask-wearing in indoor settings, but stopped short of requiring them.

“The only way out of this is with mandatory vaccinations,” said Bob McDonald, the executive director of Denver Department of Public Health and Environment (DDPHE).

No other Colorado city or county has required vaccines like Denver has, though state government employees must be vaccinated or otherwise undergo twice-weekly COVID-19 testing, the governor’s office announced.

Like nursing homes, public schools are another entity where mask requirements are coming back. Denver Public Schools announced August 3 that masks will be required for all students and staff, while Jefferson County will mandate that students younger than 12 years old wear masks indoors. DPS and Jeffco Schools are the two largest school districts in the state.

Cherry Creek Schools is encouraging masks, but not requiring them, the superintendent wrote. The same goes for Douglas County schools.

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Kyle Cooke is the Digital Media Manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at kylecooke@rmpbs.org.