Broomfield issues mask mandate, citing Marshall Fire and omicron

Broomfield volition instrumentality a metropolis and countywide indoor disguise mandate starting Friday.

Officials cited the Marshall Fire taking Avista Hospital offline and the melodramatic increases successful cases of omicron successful Broomfield arsenic the reasons for the mandate.

The mask order is acceptable to expire connected Feb. 3 and applies indoors successful the metropolis and region to everyone property 2 and older.

Broomfield was 1 of the fewer places successful the Denver metro country without a disguise mandate. Douglas County is present the lone country not requiring masks adjacent Denver.

Colorado recorded its astir single-day cases of COVID-19 astatine immoderate constituent successful the pandemic connected Monday with 22,793 caller cases. The people much than doubled the second-highest regular total.

According to a quality merchandise from Broomfield, since omicron’s detection successful Colorado, Broomfield’s seven-day cumulative incidence has accrued from 221 cases per 100,000 connected Dec. 2 to 835.2 cases per 100,000 connected Jan. 4. That is two-and-a-half times the highest lawsuit incidence erstwhile delta was the ascendant variant circulating successful Broomfield.

Broomfield officials besides cited the metro region’s ICU furniture capacity, which presently is little than 4%, with 62% of facilities reporting unit shortages.