The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released guidelines Monday for the 5 Star State Certification program, designed to assist local businesses by allowing those with special certifications to increase capacity.

Details about the parameters of the program, which counties are eligible and what requirements businesses will have to follow will be released later this week.

To be certified, businesses must implement public health measures beyond what is already required to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Businesses that do so can then be allowed accelerated reopenings and loosened capacity limits.

The program is voluntary and must be set up within each county. New capacity limits for certified businesses will depend on where the business’ county falls on the state’s COVID-19 dial.

Currently, Denver is at Level Red, which means restaurants are only allowed to serve patrons outdoors, offices and gyms are limited to 10% capacity and retail stores are limited to 50% capacity.

Each county has the freedom to change and design the program to fit its specific goals and population.

All programs must have five base criteria:

• An administrative committee to implement the program that includes the local public health agency, community members and other partners.
• Financial resources to fund the implementation of the program that do not come from public health funding.
• A plan for compliance and enforcement for certified businesses that includes a live third-party inspection.
• A variance application that includes a supportive letter from county hospitals, commissioners, sheriff, police departments, mayors, emergency managers and tribes.
• A plan for business certification applications, training and tracking that may be tailored for each county.

The administrative committee must provide weekly updates to CDPHE and its local public health agency about new certifications, revoked certifications and businesses that receive warnings.

Certified businesses can only receive one warning before losing certification. CDPHE can remove approval of the administrative committee at any time if the committee fails to enforce public health requirements.

The program, first drafted and released in November, has been finalized after receiving public feedback.