DENVER (KDVR) — More than a dozen Denver businesses were cited for COVID-19 violations as the state ramps up testing.
Today Colorado began ramping up testing for COVID-19 by setting up two new testing sites. The goal is to get test results back within two to four days.
One of those sites is at Water world in Adams County.
The park was temporarily shut down because of the coronavirus and is now a spot where people can get tested fast and easy. Governor Jared Polis took a test himself Monday afternoon.
“The genesis of this is that a lot of the testing being done with the national labs was simply taking too long,” Polis said.
Another lab was set up on Monday at the Aurora Sports Park where Mayor Mike Coffman was also tested for COVID-19.
“People weren’t hearing back for 9 or 10 days. I even heard it took 12 days for somebody to hear back so we wanted to do something about and fix it,” Polis said.
The Governor says results should now take two to four days.
Colorado’s Positivity rate is now is at 2.84%. That is lower than the 5% threshold recommended by the CDC.
But the Governor said the lower rates are not enough to lower restrictions – with the biggest challenge being large gatherings.
“The types of events that are dangerous that no state or country have figure out are mass events. How do you have 10 or 20 thousand people without it being a mass spreader event?,” Polis said.
The Governor did not say when he might change seating capacity or 10 p.m. last call regulations at restaurants and bars.
In Denver, 13 business were sited for mask violations over the weekend. Two were ordered to temporarily close.
As Denver strives to reduce COVID cases in the city, the governor is hoping the latest testing sites will bring numbers down across the state.
There are now nearly 50 testing sites open across the state. More are expected to open by the end of this week.