The City of Denver issued a stay-at-home order March 23. The order was to go into effect at 5 p.m. March 24 and continue until April 10.
“This stay at home order responds to the public health advice we have received as well as ongoing conversations with the Governor and metro mayors,” Mayor Michael B. Hancock said in a news release. “People and businesses need to continue to take physical distancing seriously to make an impact on the spread of this virus. Frankly, voluntary `distancing' is simply not enough.”
The state urged people to remain home except to buy food, obtain medication or health care service or collect supplies needed to work from home.
In a statement about Denver's action, Gov. Jared Polis, who has stopped short of issuing such an order as of March 23, said:
“Last week, San Miguel (County) issued a stay at home order for non-critical functions and additional isolation measures were also taken in Gunnison, Eagle, and Summit counties. Today the city and county of Denver issued a similar order.
"I'm strongly in support of these local efforts, and it's extremely important that just as our state is acting boldly and urgently, that our county health departments are also taking strong actions ... taking into account local factors like population density and concentration of coronavirus cases, to best contain the spread of the virus.
"Thank you to Mayor Hancock and other local leaders making strong moves to reduce the spread of the virus in communities across our state.”
The following are considered “critical” industries that are exempt from the order:
• Health care
• Infrastructure, including utilities, fuel, public water, telecommunications, transportation and food supply chain
• Hotels
• Businesses and organizations that provide for disadvantaged people, and those that provide necessities to the economically disadvantaged
• Manufacturing, including food, beverages, chemicals, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, sanitary products
• Agriculture
• Retail, including grocery stores, liquor stores, farms, gas stations, restaurants and bars, hardware stores
• Marijuana dispensaries (for medical or curbside delivery)
• Services, including trash and recycling, mail, shipping, laundromats, building cleaning and maintenance, auto supply and repair, funeral homes, crematoriums, cemeteries, and animal shelters and rescues
• Warehouses and distribution
• Child care
• News media
• Financial institutions
• Construction
• Defense
• Public safety, including law enforcement, fire response, emergency medical technicians, security, disinfection, cleaning, building code enforcement and snow removal
• Logistics, tech support or contractors with critical government services
• And critical government functions
