BOULDER, Colo. — The Boulder City Council has decided to return to all-virtual city council meetings due to concerns over recent COVID-19 trends.
The decision comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) moved the county's COVID-19 community level from low to medium on their community risk tracker, a release said.
On top of that, the release said council members and staff contracted COVID-19 after gathering in council chambers for the May 3 council meeting.
The move delays the option for the public to attend meetings in person, the release said. That was supposed to begin on May 17.
>WATCH ABOVE: Colorado's COVID positivity rate slowly increases, but don't call it a "wave"
“While we have been excited about the prospect of welcoming community members back to in-person participation, public safety remains our top priority,” City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde said in a statement. “We’re hopeful this period of heightened vigilance will be short-lived. We will continue to monitor data and watch for news of any changes in risk levels from public health officials.”
Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) sent a note to parents Friday alerting them to the rise in COVID cases.
"We are seeing an increase in cases in our schools and in our surrounding community; this is occurring throughout much of Colorado," BVSD said in the email.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) released an updated statewide modeling report Friday showing that COVID-19 transmission is on a relatively slow upward trend, according to a release, fueled by the increasing predominance of omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1.
CDPHE projects that there could be 500 or more people hospitalized with COVID-19 by mid-June, the release said, which would be much lower than previous surges. The most recent data show 116 confirmed COVID-19 patients, with 62% of facilities reporting.
The Denver Department of Public Health and Environment reported Friday that Denver County is also at level medium. According to the CDC's COVID Data Tracker, Mineral County in southwestern Colorado is the only other county that is not currently at level low as of Friday.
RELATED: Latest COVID-19 numbers: Average daily COVID cases back over 1,000 for first time since February
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