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As Denver, Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties implement a new indoor mask-wearing mandate amid rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, Douglas County’s Board of Health is not considering a similar move, according to a county spokesperson.
During a Tuesday work session, Douglas County’s commissioners — two of whom are also county health board members — were updated on the latest COVID-19 figures in the county, which at the time showed about 90 people in local hospitals for the disease and eight deaths so far this month.
The county’s intensive-care beds were 101% full and the inpatient beds were 91% occupied, according to the Tri-County Health Department’s data dashboard.
“We are seeing breaking points in other systems around the state and the metro area,” county Commissioner George Teal said in the meeting. “I have an appreciation for the system here in Douglas County being stressed. There’s a big difference between a system being stressed versus a system breaking.”