There could be light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced on Monday.

Because current health data is showing that the spread of the virus is slowing, signs Hancock called “very encouraging,” city leaders over the next seven to 10 days will be working closely with Gov. Jared Polis and state health officials to determine if and when the city can begin rolling out a “phased relaxation” of stay-at-home orders.

“Some of our biggest challenges are significantly increasing testing for COVID-19 and then testing for antibodies, as well as retraining and hiring staff for contact tracing,” he said. “Those are the top two criteria that we’ve talked about for weeks now in terms of how we can begin to loosen some of our orders here.”

Currently, the city only has capability to test a few hundred people every week, but that number needs to reach up to 2,000, said Bob McDonald, the executive director of Denver’s public health department. 

“We have a ways to go before we reach that,” McDonald said during the Monday morning press conference. 

Meanwhile, reopening the city won’t come with a flip of the switch, Hancock made clear.

Currently, the city is under a stay-at-home order until April 30 and a social distancing order that’s set to expire May 11, but Hancock said both could be extended.

“This will be a different summer for those of us here in Denver,” he said. “We should expect, as residents of this city, as visitors to Denver, that these orders will remain in place for the foreseeable future to keep everyone safe.”

What’s critical to the reopening plan, he said, is that it’s “nimble enough so that if, God forbid, we see a spike in cases, we’re able to quickly reinstitute our orders.”

Nearly 100 people in Denver have died from the virus, and more than 1,750 people have tested positive.

Fortunately, Hancock said, Denver’s hospitals “are doing a great job keeping up with demand,” and the number of virus-related hospitalizations appear to be slowing.  

About 80% of all hospital beds are available, he said, and about a third of intensive care unit beds are open. Two-thirds of ventilators also are available for use.

“These are very encouraging signs that our efforts to stay at home and physically distance from one another are working,” he said.