Gov. Jared Polis announced Wednesday he is extending school closures through April 30, consistent with President Trump’s announced guidance Tuesday on in-person gatherings.

“I expect many districts are making decisions about whether to close for the rest of the school year,” Polis said during his Wednesday briefing. He applauded several school districts for their creativity on online learning. 

Polis also reported that Colorado has asked the federal government for 2 million N95 masks, 10,000 ventilators, 880,000 face shields and 720,000 surgical gowns. What Colorado is getting is just a fraction of that.

“I can’t begin to express to you the frustration” for getting those supplies, Polis said. He said he even toyed with the idea of sending over a jet to China to get supplies, he said. 

“Anyone would have thought that was a very cruel April Fool’s joke” a year ago, the governor said. “The only fool is us, humanity, for not having the necessary preparations in place.”

Polis also said the state is asking for more supplies than it needs, to guard against supply difficulties, orders that may fall through, equipment that might not meet standards and the larger issue: global competition for those supplies as the pandemic grows.

“I’m pushing these guys as hard as I can,” the governor said. “We’re looking at every possible way” to have those supplies sooner.

The state has ordered from other sources, including China. Those orders are for 2.5 million N95 masks, a million surgical masks, 250,000 gowns, 1.5 million gloves and 750 ventilators. Ventilators equal lives, he added. 

But whether Colorado will get those supplies is unknown. States are competing among each other for supplies from private vendors.

“We don’t know we will have supplies until they’re in hand and validated,” Polis said. “We’re competing against other states and with private companies across the world.”

The state is working with first-time suppliers in China, Polis said, so they’re working with a team from Colorado State University to test the equipment. If the state needs to send folks to China to validate the supplies they’ll do it, he said.  

The surge is coming, and the state is working to spare hospitals and health care systems from becoming overwhelmed. Scott Bookman, incident commander for the Department of Public Health and Environment, said that a surge of patients will overwhelm Colorado hospitals between April and July.

Patients who are severely ill will require intensive care and will be ventilator-dependent for an average of 11 to 20 days, he said.

Bookman went into detail on the level of care COVID-19 patients need, and what that will do to hospital capacity. By April 18, the state hopes to have 5,000 intensive care beds, and 10,000 beds for non-acute patients by May 15. Bookman added that they are working to recruit volunteers and those in the National Guard to help with patient care.

“It’s a big lift,” he said.

Those dates have been moved up since just Monday, when Polis said the state would need 5,000 ICU beds by summer. “We’re continuing to evaluate the models” and those updates reflect a worst-case scenario, according to Bookman.

The state has relaxed licensing requirements and nurses have been coming in from other states to help with that surge, and hospitals are already adding beds, Polis said. Mountain communities have more hospital capacity right now because they serve tourists who aren’t there, and beds are being freed up because elective surgeries are being postponed. 

The state also is creating a patient transport unit, which should be in place by April 10.

“This plan will allow us to deal with the surge of patients without overwhelming” the health care system, Bookman said.

Based on the science and data, “the more we succeed at staying at home, the sooner this crisis will end” and people can return to normalcy. Polis added. 

Polis said that data has shown that the loss of life in Colorado could be in the tens of thousands, although he’s hoping for much less.

The governor also returned to the topic of testing, which he said is unnecessary unless you need medical care, such as for respiratory distress. Stay home if symptomatic and stay isolated, he said. The state is processing thousands of tests per day, and results are coming in within 24 hours, he said. 

The number of cases of COVID-19 in Colorado has now exceeded 3,300. Tuesday marked the deadliest day for the virus, with 18 deaths, bringing the total to 69. By midday Wednesday, it’s up to 77 deaths.

On Monday, the governor announced preliminary data tied to the first executive order he issued on March 16 to close dine-in restaurants and bars. The infection rate, which had been doubling every two days, is now doubling every five days, he said. 

Results from each executive action take between 12 and 15 days to show up, Polis has said.

The governor also took time to encourage Coloradans to fill out the U.S. census form, as April 1 is Census Day. “It’s not like you have a lot of other things to do,” he said. “Pause your Netflix or AppleTV for a few minutes and fill out the form,” which is online for the first time.