The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Phillips County moved to level blue on the State's new COVID dial. The change took place Saturday morning, Feb. 6 following official notification from the Northeast Colorado Health Department the day before. Phillips County had been, since the end of last year, in the designated orange, or high risk, level on the dial.

In her notification to the Phillips County Commissioners, Trish McClain, Public Health Director at the NCHD, said she was unaware that counties could skip a level but given the metrics of the newly published 2.0 COVID dial, Phillips County landed on blue, or caution.

"This is great news," Phillips County Commissioner Terry Hofmeister said in his release of the information Friday afternoon. "But it can be taken away just as easy if we don't keep our numbers low as we have been doing."

According to data on the NCHD's COVID dashboard, Phillips County has seen just three new cases over the past seven days and only seven over a 14-day period. It also says the County's test positivity rate, over the past two weeks, is .3 percent, a .7 percent decrease from the two weeks prior.

Total, Phillips County has recorded 328 cases of COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic almost one year ago.

According to the State of Colorado's new COVID 2.0 dial, level blue allows for 50 percent capacity at most events and functions including up to 175 people per event. Outdoor events could allow for up to 250 people.

Most notable, the change allows for more spectators at high school and junior high sporting events, where previously only two people per player were allowed to attend.

Several other counties in Northeast Colorado also downgraded to level blue over the weekend including Morgan, Sedgwick and Washington. Logan and Yuma counites were moved to level yellow, located between levels orange and blue on the new dial.

For more information on Phillips County COVID-19 numbers and to view the State's new COVID 2.0 dial and details visit https://www.nchd.org/covid-dashboard.