Denver Moved to Level Yellow on COVID-19 Dial

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment moved Denver county to level yellow on the COVID-19 dial this Saturday at 9 a.m.

Denver county now joins a number of other counties in the metro area that are Level Yellow such as Jefferson, Arapaho, and Douglas counties. This move allows increased capacity limits for many local businesses.

Level Yellow capacity limits include:

50 percent or 50 people (or up to 150 people within their usable space calculated using the Distancing Space Calculator), indoors at restaurants
50 percent or 50 people, whichever is fewer, at gyms and fitness businesses
11 p.m. on-premises last call for alcohol service
50 percent capacity at offices (remote work is still encouraged)
50 percent capacity for retail businesses
Eligibility for outdoor site-specific variances

Denver County Level Yellow — Map showing Colorado county levels as of 2/8/2021.

Per State order, businesses in Level Yellow counties that are 5 Star-certified must continue to operate at Yellow capacity levels until 70 percent of people ages 70 and over have been vaccinated statewide. The State estimates this will occur by the end of February. Once it does, 5 Star businesses will be able to increase capacities to Blue levels.

In a press release, Mayor Michael Hancock thanked Denver residents for doing their part to follow public health guidelines and reduce the city’s case rates. “You are not only saving lives, you are also helping our city transition from rescue to recovery,” Mayor Hancock says. “We’ve still got a long way to go, but we’re getting closer to the end. Keep up the great work by continuing to wear masks, social distancing and avoiding large groups because it’s more important than ever.”

This news comes as the CDPHE has reported 16 cases of the COVID-19 variants have been discovered in Colorado. Of those, 13 were the B117 variant from the United Kingdom and three were the L452R variant. All cases have been reported in the Western Slope and Denver metro area.

For more updates on Denver’s response to COVID-19, visit denvergov.org/COVID-19