Non-essential cosmetic procedures in Colorado must halt Monday under a public health order issued Sunday by the state health department.

The order – which requires hospitals and surgery centers, including outpatient ones, to “immediately cease” cosmetic procedures that can be delayed up to six months without causing “harm to life, limb or function” – goes into effect Monday for the remainder of November, according to a Sunday news release from the department.

The order, signed by the department’s director, Jill Hunsaker Ryan, is enforceable by local authorities, with potential penalties including jail time and fines.

The move to halt cosmetic surgeries is among five Gov. Jared Polis laid out on Thursday as potential responses to tight hospital capacity throughout the state, due to factors including COVID-19 and staffing shortages.

Other options on the table, according to Polis last week:

• requesting medical teams from the Federal Emergency Management Administration;
• reactivation of the crisis standards of care, which allow hospitals to change transfer, staffing and, in a worst-case scenario, triage systems to prioritize the use of scarce beds and resources; and
• the stepped-up deployment of monoclonal antibody treatment to people infected with COVID-19.

Earlier on Sunday, Polis announced that he signed an executive order authorizing the state health department to order hospitals and freestanding emergency departments to stop admitting or transferring patients as capacities are threatened.