NOTE: This is the live blog from Saturday and Sunday, April 18-19, 2020. Click here for the live blog for Monday, April 20, 2020.
The public now has access to new data on the novel coronavirus in Colorado, including the number of current hospitalizations, daily discharges and facilities expecting resource shortages.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado Hospital Association announced on Thursday that they had launched a website for that data, which can be found here.
READ MORE: List of Colorado businesses that are open
Click here for the latest update on the number of cases, the age, gender and location of presumptive positive, indeterminate and confirmed cases from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Below, we're updating this blog with the latest information regarding COVID-19 in Colorado.
Latest updates:
Sunday, April 19
4:05 p.m. | Latest Colorado COVID-19 numbers
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released updated case numbers at 4 p.m. As of Sunday, the data is as follows (Change from Saturday in parenthesis):
9,730 cases (+297)
1,813 hospitalized (+16)
56 counties (+0)
46,195 people tested (1,589)
422 deaths (+11)
111 outbreaks (+4)
2:49 p.m. | Large crowds gather at Capitol to protest stay-at-home order
A few hundred people gathered at the steps of the State Capitol Sunday to protest Colorado’s COVID-19 stay-at-home order, which protesters argue is an overreach of the state’s authority.
Waving flags and protest signs, the groups spread out across the capitol’s lawn facing Lincoln Avenue. Some were seen standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the sidewalk adjacent to Lincoln. Some of those gathered were wearing masks; others were not. Protesters were holding signs, some reading: "Liberate Colorado," "I want my career back," and "Open Colorado."
11:28 p.m. | Protests against Colorado’s stay-at-home order planned for today
Multiple groups plan to descend on Colorado’s State Capitol today to protest what they argue is overreach and unconstitutional restrictions in the face of governmental efforts to stop the spread of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The protests — one a planned “Operation Gridlock” event around the Capitol building in people’s cars at 1 p.m., the other calling for people to bring signs and stand outside from 2 to 4 p.m. — have been organized by various groups, including Libertarian parties around the metro area.
11:00 a.m. | CSP dealing with crowded mountain roads
The Colorado State Patrol continues to battle with crowds clogging mountain highways amid the state’s stay-at-home order. @CSP_Golden shared a photo showing several skiers and snowboarders unloading their parked cars on Loveland Pass this weekend. Troopers tweeted that the activity is blocking semis from using the pass, which is a HazMat route across the divide.
8:55 a.m. | Vail pioneer Bob Lazier dies from COVID-19
Vail pioneer and founder of the Tivoli Lodge in Vail, Bob Lazier, died from COVID-19, the town of Vail announced Sunday. Lazier, 81, was a Minneapolis native and came to Vail in the 1960s to open the Tivoli Lodge. He was also a race car driver, finishing 19th in the 1981 Indianapolis 500. He leaves behind two sons, one of whom won the 1996 Indianapolis 500, and a daughter.
Lazier's death is the seventh known COVID-19-related death in Eagle County, which is currently seeking exemptions from some portions of the state's COVID-19 executive and public health orders in an effort to boost morale and the county's economy.
Saturday, April 18
4:54 p.m. | Eagle County seeks authority to reopen ahead of April 26
Eagle County, one of the state's hardest-hit counties in the COVID-19 fight, is seeking authority to reopen ahead of April 26. County health officials sent a letter to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Thursday, asking the agency to grant the county authority to lift restrictions on social gatherings and the conditional reopening of non-essentials businesses and outdoor recreation facilities.
4:11 p.m. |Latest COVID-19 numbers in Colorado
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released updated case numbers at 4 p.m. As of Saturday, the data is as follows (Change from Friday in parenthesis):
9,433 cases (+386)
1,797 hospitalized (+42)
56 counties (+0)
44,606 people tested (1,299)
411 deaths (+20)
107 outbreaks (+7)
10:18 a.m. | There are currently more than 700,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US
There are now more than 700,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States, according to a database kept by Johns Hopkins University.
8:59 a.m. | USAF Thunderbirds to fly over the Front Range Saturday
The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds will perform a flyover Saturday, crisscrossing the Front Range to honor and salute Colorado's frontline workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The team is planning to perform a flyover beginning in northern Colorado around 12:50 p.m. today. The team will then move down the Front Range, including a half-hour show in the skies above Denver.
Click here for the live blog from Friday, April 17, 2020.
