Denver posted its lowest number of new COVID cases since October earlier this week, a positive sign as the city readies to loosen capacity for qualifying restaurants and awaits further change to state health measures.

On Sunday, Denver reported 84 new cases, the lowest daily toll since Oct. 4, when there were 83. On Monday, there were just 85 cases. That’s the lowest two-day total since the end of September. At the pandemic’s peak in mid-November, Denver was regularly reporting several hundred cases each day, with one day hitting a high of 945 new infections. 

The improvements aren’t isolated to raw COVID cases, either. According to Denver COVID data, the 14-day average of hospitalizations is down 18%. The 14-day average of deaths is down 7.7%, and the two-week average for number of cases per 100,000 people is below 300 for the first time since Oct. 15. 

That last number is crucial. Denver has continued to see a decline there, making it possible, even likely, that the city will be able to allow qualifying businesses to loosen up their capacity and allow more people to dine and patronize indoors.

 “The City & County of Denver is pleased to see our case numbers trending downward right now,” Heather Burke, spokeswoman for Denver’s Joint Information Center, said in an email, “and to keep them heading down, we need residents to keep doing what they’re doing until vaccines become more widely available: wear your mask, don’t gather in large groups, and maintain social distancing.”

Burke said that given the sustained, low prevalence of disease here, officials are expecting to be approved for the Five Star program within the next week. Once that happens, pre-certified businesses will get the go-ahead to open for more customers.

Denver’s progress has been sustained for weeks now, as has Colorado’s overall improvement. At one point, hospitals here and elsewhere were ringing the alarm about staffing levels, and many were predicting a dire winter. But the trend reversed themselves after the holiday season, counter to the worst fears that people would gather and exacerbate an already serious debacle.

Now, the situation has stabilized to the point that the state is preparing to further loosen up restrictions for certain counties. Denver, which is currently in the mid-tier level orange, would be placed into the yellow category, a looser level, when the new dial is unveiled, which may come as early as this week.