"Safer-At-Home" Order Extended

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Governor Polis on Monday, May 25, 2020 extended the Safer at Home Exec Order. This Executive Order amends and extends Executive Order D 2020 044, Safer at Home, for an additional eight (8) days to June 1, 2020. To review the extended Safer at Home order, please click here. Key dates in this new order include: 
 
Click here for the state's Field Services and Real Estate guidance. 
 
Under the extended order, Coloradans are asked to stay at home as much as possible and vulnerable individuals will continue to abide by the stay at home order. 
 
Local jurisdictions will also have flexibility to go above and beyond the state guidelines or apply for a variance to loosen restrictions.  A county may apply for a variance to CDPHE if it meets certain criteria, including support from its local public health agency; demonstration that local hospitals can verify they have the capacity to serve all the people needing care; and county commissioners adopting the alternative plan in place of the statewide order.  
 
If local governments choose to ignore the options available to them they are breaking the law and jeopardizing their emergency preparedness grant. Businesses who willfully disregard the regulations in the public health order will be issued a Cease and Desist Order.  
 
If you live, work or operate a business in Denver, Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield and Jefferson counties, you must follow the local health order. In addition, municipalities are beginning to pass their own health ordinances, with Wheat Ridge, for example, requiring facemasks for all employees and customers at retail locations.
 
Jobsite Safety Change:
The new Safer at Home order instructs employers to implement symptom-monitoring protocols at jobsites and offices. The state provided a sample form to check employees before and after the work day. According to the Safer at Home order, if an employee reports any symptoms to refer them to the CDPHE's Symptom Tracker and then take all of the following steps at your office or jobsite:
  • Send the employee home immediately;
  • Increase cleaning in your facility and require social distancing of staff at least 6 feet apart from one another;
  • Exclude the employee until they are fever-free, without medication, for 72 hours and 7 days have passed since their first symptom

If multiple employees have these symptoms, please contact your local health department. And then eliminate or regularly clean and disinfect any items in common spaces, such as break rooms, that are shared between individuals, such as condiments, coffee makers and vending machines.
 
The Safer at Home order still asks employees to where masks, and requires them if there is to be close contact between employees and customers. The state prepared a video to show how to set up your workplace or jobsite for temperature and health screenings.
 
We are working with our industry partners at AGC of Colorado, Colorado Contractors Association and the Colorado Association of Mechanical and Plumbing Contractors to receive more specific guidance on this issue before it goes into effect on May 4.  We will update you as soon as we have more direction.