DENVER – The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is proposing an update to the COVID-19 dialing system, which it has used to balance COVID-19 containment and the need for counseling during the pandemic.
The proposed update – called Dial 2.0 – would have an impact on the business and daily life for Coloradans.
As part of the proposed change, watch face updates would be based on the number of people infected with COVID-19 in combination with the number of people vaccinated. These updates are currently based on 14-day time periods. Under the new proposal, it would change to seven-day periods.
Another possible update would be a smaller percentage of Coloradans that must test positive for COVID-19 to have a province move to Level Yellow or Level Orange.
In counties with fewer than 20,000 people, the CDPHE would have the ability to determine which level they believe is appropriate based on positivity rates.
In a news conference Monday morning, Dr. Eric France, chief medical officer at the CDPHE, that these changes make sense when you consider the lifespan of a pandemic.
“Now we are in a place where health workers and our most vulnerable who are most likely to die or be hospitalized are being vaccinated,” he said. “And so it’s a different place from six months ago when the dial was built in collaboration with communities.”
The CDPHE looks at the prevalence of disease in a community, the degree of positivity and the hospital admissions.
“These different things could play a different role for the next generation of dials, and that’s absolutely what we should be doing as we’re in a different place in the pandemic,” France said.
The CDPHE gives Coloradans the opportunity to comment on these proposed updates.
You can submit your comments and feedback on these changes by click here and fill out a Google form.