AP
Colorado Governor Jared Polis
- Colorado declared a state of emergency on Tuesday after the 15th coronavirus case was confirmed in a matter of days.
- The patients have been located all over the state, not clustered in a single area.
- The state of emergency involves granting sick leave for people who test positive, especially to areas like food handling, hospitality and health care, a drive-up testing facility, and other measures.
- The state is looking for ways to fund sick leave for those whose employers do not provide it, such as unemployment insurance.
- Massachusetts also declared a state of emergency on Tuesday afternoon.
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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus on Tuesday after the state confirmed its 15th case, all of them in a matter of days.
While that may not be as many confirmed cases as other states, the concerning part is that the cases have been all over the state, including the mountain areas where people ski, which are still in high tourist season; the largest urban population in the state, the greater Denver area; and the north and western parts of the state.
The state of emergency involves ensuring workers in food handling, hospitality, child care, health care, and education will stay home and get tested if they exhibit flu-like symptoms. The governor is directing the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to engage in "emergency rule making" to make sure workers in these categories get sick leave even while awaiting test results for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
He's also directed the department to find other methods of payment for workers who test positive but don't have access to sick leave, such as unemployment insurance.
Colorado State employees will also be entitled to sick leave or free to work from home should they be able to and the circumstance demand.
The department of health is also creating a pop-up, drive-up testing facility for patients who need a test on doctor's orders.
And he's told the department of motor vehicles to temporarily allow residents who are over 65 to be able to renew their driver's licenses online, rather than forcing them to "congregate" in public DMV offices.
The governor is also urging private businesses to extend paid sick leave to their employees to encourage them not to come to work sick.
Massachusetts also declared a state of emergency on Tuesday afternoon as the total number of confirmed or presumptively positive cases of COVID-19 hit 92.