Boulder County Public Health (BCPH) announced today that the county remains at the less restrictive level of the current public health order on gatherings for 18-to-22-year-olds. This means people in this age group are permitted to be in personal social gatherings of up to 10 people—the same limit for all age groups in the county.
Dan Jones
BCPH will no longer review this health order weekly. The health order remains in place and any changes to permitted gatherings for 18-to-22-year-olds will be communicated as needed.
Residents of collegiate group homes that are under stricter stay-at-home orders must still comply with their specific orders and mitigation plans. More information on the county’s public health orders and tracking is available on the Boulder County website.
While the current health order permits this age group to be in personal social gatherings of up to 10 people, there are two significant updates since last week that impact everyone in Boulder County:
- The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) issued an order on Friday, Oct. 23, limiting the number of households that can be in a personal social gathering. The limit is two households at a time.
- Campus-sponsored/approved events are not affected by this order. CDPHE's latest public health order means personal social gatherings of 10 or fewer people in Boulder County are still allowed, but may include individuals from a maximum of two households (e.g., residence hall rooms or off-campus residences).
- Boulder County is seeing an increase in cases in the general population and may move on the state’s dial from the current status of Safer at Home Level 2 to Safer at Home Level 3, which would increase restrictions on certain activities, reduce building capacity limits and more. BCPH sent a news release on Monday, Oct. 26, notifying the community of this possibility.
To learn more about these updates and information on the university’s COVID-19 response:
- CU Boulder hosts a weekly update for faculty, staff, students and Buff families on Tuesdays at noon via Zoom. The city of Boulder hosts community updates every Thursday at 10:15 a.m. Information on attending the two weekly briefings is available online.
The stability in the metrics in the 18-to-22-year-old population in Boulder indicates that CU students have been doing their part to address COVID-19 outbreaks, but remaining at baseline levels does not mean that any of us can relax our vigilance.
COVID-19 remains a constant threat to the community and the campus, as seen with the increasing COVID-19 infections in the general population. We need to continue to engage in safe practices and prevent another spike in the CU student population. Boulder County will keep the public health order on gathering size limits for this age group active through at least Dec. 15 and can make changes to it at any time.
Thank you to our students for taking action and following the public health orders. Because of the majority of students’ actions to this point, every member of our campus community can now participate in gatherings of up to 10 people. The limited number of students who have not been following expectations must understand that their actions are continuing to put their peers and others at risk. The campus will continue to enforce public health orders, and those who engage in significant violations of public health requirements face discipline, including possible suspension from CU.
Testing availability reminder:
- All students, faculty and staff can participate in the campus monitoring program for COVID-19. A few of the testing locations and hours of operations will change next week. Those changes will be announced in CU Boulder Today later this week and the monitoring webpage will be updated.
- On-campus residents are required to participate in monitoring, as are certain employees.
- Those who complete their weekly COVID-19 monitoring test are entered for a chance to win $100. Three prizes are given each week.
- In October, on-campus residents who live in the residence hall or apartment building with the highest level of monitoring test participation will also have a chance to win one of three $50 CU Book Store gift cards.
- Students should contact the Public Health Clinic at Wardenburg to schedule a diagnostic test if they:
- Have a monitoring test that indicates the possibility of COVID-19.
- Are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
- Have had known exposure to a person with COVID-19 (recommendation is to wait to test until five to seven days after exposure).
Thank you for continuing to follow current public health requirements and guidelines.
Dan Jones
Associate Vice Chancellor of Integrity, Safety and Compliance
