Denver could be just a week away from its lowest level of restrictions in months, but to do that the county must hold its COVID numbers at their current, tenuous level.

Part of the decision to move Denver downward a risk level – to blue, from its current status of yellow – will be driven by the city’s per 100,000 incident rate, averaged over a week. In order to qualify, Denver must have 100 or fewer cases. 

The county dipped below that level Tuesday, as well as on Feb. 19. But it slipped back above it the rest of the past week. A spokesperson for Denver acknowledged that Denver had hit the needed target but that it needed to hold that number for a week and that it had shifted up and down in recent days.

A message sent to the state Department of Public Health and Environment was not returned Wednesday.

Should Denver hold fast, either over the next week or some week in the near future, it would mark another positive moment in the county’s reversal of its COVID crisis. In November, Denver was regularly topping 1,000 cases per 100,000 residents, to the point that the county technically qualified for a shutdown order.

Then state officials changed the dial, allowing Denver to avoid total restrictions.

If Denver were to be moved to blue, the second-loosest level of restrictions, it would free up capacity restrictions. In-person K-12 education would be cleared fully, rather than hedged with a “recommendation.” Restaurants could still hold 50% capacity, but that would bump to a max of 175 people; under the current level, it tops out at 50. Similar capacity adjustments would be made for indoor and outdoor events, as well as for gyms.

Last calls for alcohol sales would be moved back to midnight, from 11 p.m. Group sports and camps could have 50 people per activity, rather than 25.  

Bars, however, would remain closed. Denver would have to enter the lowest level of restrictions to reopen those establishments.

Denver’s not the only metro county teetering on the edge of looser restrictions. Arapahoe, Douglas and Adams counties have all seen marked shifts in their COVID levels.