Recent Updates
NEW GUIDANCE FROM THE CDC
- As a precaution, the CDC recommends that you mask up indoors if you live in a place with “substantial” or “high” coronavirus transmission, even if you’re fully vaccinated. (The guidance for people who are unvaccinated remains the same: Always mask up indoors in public places.)
- Right now, Boulder is at “substantial” levels of transmission.
- Boulder Valley School District is actively monitoring the increase in COVID-19 cases and will be releasing new updates for parents and students on Tuesday, August 10th.
Vaccine Information
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- Vaccines are now available to the general public, including children ages 12 and older.
- The map below shows all of the active sites offering vaccinations in Colorado:
State Response
- In March 2021, the Colorado Legislature unveiled the Colorado Recovery Plan. It’s a $700 million stimulus package that will: take care of our small businesses, revitalize our infrastructure, support hardworking Colorado families, and make investments in our workforce and rural Colorado.
- These dollars will be allocated through dozens of bills this legislative session. You can read all about the nuts and bolts of the package here.
- In November, the Colorado Legislature returned for an extraordinary session and passed several bills to provide millions of dollars in relief to Colorado families & businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The full rundown of the bills we passed with information on how to access relief can be found here.
- Highlights of the package of bills passed:
- $57 million in direct aid, grants, and annual fee waivers to struggling small businesses
- Restaurants, bars, and food trucks are able to retain state sales tax they collect from November 2020 through February 2021
- $20 million to housing assistance to support renters and homeowners facing financial hardship
- $5 million to the Energy Outreach Colorado Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund in order to provide financial relief to Coloradans that are struggling to pay their utility bills
- $20 million toward increasing our state’s broadband capacity
- $45 million to enable existing child care providers to keep their doors open and new providers to open and meet the needs of working parents
- $5 million to help replenish essential community services that increase access to food for Colorado families facing food insecurity
Federal Response
President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Recovery Plan on March 11th. This sweeping stimulus package will provide direct relief to most Americans, funding to safely reopen schools, investments in COVID-19 testing and tracing, and it will effectively cut child poverty in half. In more detail:
- The relief package provides a 3rd round of direct payments for most Americans of up to $1,400 per adult and the same amount per dependent (regardless of age). Those payments have already started hitting bank accounts.
- The $300-per-week boost to unemployment benefits will continue through September 6, 2021.
- The bill expands the Child Tax Credit:
- For 2021, the bill temporarily expands the child tax credit, which is currently up to $2,000 per child under 17.
- Under the legislation, the tax credit would be as much as $3,600 for children up to age 5 and as much as $3,000 for children 6 to 17.
- $350 billion goes to states, local governments, territories and tribal governments.
- About $130 billion will go to safely reopening schools.
- It also includes funding for colleges and universities, transit agencies, housing aid, child care providers and food assistance.
