Gov. Jared Polis may have ended the COVID-19 state of emergency in Colorado, but the pandemic isn’t over for residential care facilities.

As cases of COVID-19 begin to increase in Colorado, fueled by the more contagious delta variant, the state Department of Public Health and Environment announced updated mitigation guidance for residential care facilities Friday.

Chief among the changes was the resumption of daily testing for unvaccinated staff, as well as for unvaccinated residents who regularly leave the facility’s premises.

“Adding rapid testing of unvaccinated staff at the beginning of each shift will help us identify and stop the spread of the disease early,” Randy Kuykendall, director of the department’s health facilities and EMS division, said. “That detection is key to the continued health and safety of our residential care facility residents.”

Per data provided by the state health department, 70% of long-term care facility staff have been vaccinated. That’s an improvement from the spring, when it was in the low 60s, and for nursing homes, it’s better than the national average.

According to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which regulates nursing homes, Colorado’s rate is 17th in the nation. The state’s also in the top-25 for the rate of nursing home residents who’ve been inoculated.

But low levels of vaccination among long-term care staff is a national problem. ProPublica reported Friday that more than 40% of elder-care staff nationally are unvaccinated. Industry officials have previously said that they’re reticent to require vaccinations because it may drive some workers to leave, exacerbating an already pressing staffing problem for the facilities.

Residents that test positive for COVID-19 will now also need to immediately be evaluated by staff for monoclonal antibody therapy, the state public health department said, which involve treatments that infuse lab-generated antibodies to help fight COVID-19 in patients who have not been hospitalized. Monoclonal antibody therapies were given emergency-use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration May 26.

The state public health department also updated protocols for outbreaks in facilities, who will now need to begin outbreak testing and cease all indoor visitation after just one of their residents tests positive for the virus.

Unvaccinated staff will also need to wear more physical protection from the virus in some circumstances, such as eye protection for outbreak testing.

Older Coloradans, who typically live in residential care facilities, have largely born the brunt of COVID-19 infections throughout the pandemic. In El Paso County, Coloradans 60 and older accounted for the lion’s share of COVID-related hospitalizations since last March. Friday’s updates, Kuykendall said, should help.

“Residential care and nursing home communities have been on the front-line of mitigating COVID-19 throughout the pandemic and these added infection prevention measures will help us combat variants of concern and rising cases when they occur,” Kuykendall said.

Reporter Seth Klamann contributed to this report.