PUEBLO – On Tuesday, Mayor Nick Gradisar issued the following statement after the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment cautioned the State of Colorado could move Pueblo County to a higher Safer Level by Friday.

“We have arrived at the situation where the State could move Pueblo into Level Orange or Stay-At-Home: Level Red. The exponential rise in cases has put our hospital capacity at extreme risk leaving us with few good options.

Pueblo is now taking the brunt of this third peak in Colorado and that is hurting businesses and killing Puebloans. But we have a choice tonight, if Puebloans act now to limit social interactions, we can limit the pain to weeks and not months. If we don’t act immediately more businesses will close, more Puebloans will die, and our community will suffer for the entire winter.

Starting tonight, and for the month of November, I am advising Puebloans:

1. Go to work, do your shopping, or eat dinner and then go home afterwards. 
2. Offices in Pueblo should move to 25% teleworking status immediately. 
3. Businesses need to double efforts to keep employees safe and workplaces sanitized. 
4. Cancel your Thanksgiving gatherings or choose to hold a virtual one. 
5. Limit gatherings to 10 people or under, and only one additional household. 
6. Wear a mask anytime you leave your household, especially around older Puebloans.

 I will decide on extending the curfew over the next few days.

We have a lot of work to do to get this under control, tonight I am asking Puebloans to rise to meet this challenge.”