PUEBLO — Pueblo County officials announced a stay-at-home order will not be issued, but it is something they are still considering.
The Pueblo Health Department announced on Tuesday that local leaders were looking at issuing at the possibility of a stay-at-home order for Pueblo and that the decision will be based on "data or lack of action by Pueblo residents."
"We are not doing a stay-at-home, however we are considering it and watching what the community does," Pueblo Public Health Director Randy Evetts said. He continued by saying residents need to follow the public health orders already in place in the state to help "slow down the spread of this virus in our community."
Pueblo County Commissioner Chris Wiseman said city leaders believe the measures in place right now are "adequate" at this time. He also mentioned people need to use common sense to do "everything you can yourself to stay healthy."
"There's a lot of factors that we're waiting for this...we're trying to make our decisions based on data," Evetts said. "...It will depend on the information we get back."
The health department opened a test site at the state fairgrounds on March 19. They had 100 test kits available for those who showed up with an appointment. Everett explained that test results could take at least seven days to get back to the department.
"Although we do not have COVID-19 test results yet for the tests that were administered last week, this virus remains a serious threat to our community. It is critical that we maintain our social distance by staying home," Mayor Nick Gradisar said in a release.
Pueblo County Sheriff Kirk M. Taylor said he believes Pueblo will be fine and reiterated the importance of the data.
"We're trying to make this decision on the lack of data, not on data. Making decisions on data is easy, so we're in kind of uncharted territory," Taylor said. "We're trying to make decisions in the best interest of the community based on the lack of data."
Evetts explained that a stay-at-home order would encourage people to minimize social activities and limit interactions with others.
The latest number of cases in the county is three as of Tuesday afternoon.
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