When an executive order directed the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to issue a public health order for Coloradans to stay at home to protect the health and safety of residents, many asked the question: Isn’t there another way?

At that point in the coronavirus pandemic, there wasn’t. COVID-19 cases were rising too quickly. Without prompt and aggressive action, hospitals would have been overrun. Colorado easily could have seen case counts and the death toll climb to unmanageable levels. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. With positive cases back on the rise, though, concerns mount anew. Hopes the pandemic would go away in the summer or run its course remain unrealized.

As we learn how COVID-19 spreads and who’s most at risk, we know how to better protect ourselves. Now, the answer to the question has become clearer. And that’s the importance of individual actions — all of us taking steps to protect ourselves and others. There is another way, but it requires each of us to take action. We all have to do our part.

Many in our business community have already taken action to protect employees and customers by implementing best practices to keep people at a safe distance from one another, increase cleaning and control the number of people inside confined spaces where we know COVID-19 spreads. The steps you have taken — and continue to take — help keep case counts at manageable levels. Your actions are the reason Mesa County has led the way in reopening. This is our path forward. This is the “other way,” and it’s working.

Although COVID-19 cases have increased in Mesa County, they haven’t reached an unmanageable level. We continue on our path forward, although the journey remains unpredictable and the end unknown.

Mesa County Public Health (MCPH) recognizes there’s a lot about this pandemic that’s unfamiliar. But most of our recommendations, the actions we can all take to slow the spread of illness, aren’t new. This is the advice public health officials give whenever an infectious illness threatens the health of our community:

• Frequently wash your hands.
• Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze.
• Stay home when you’re sick.
• Clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces.

These are things you’ve heard MCPH and other public health agencies suggest time and time again as prevention and mitigation strategies. They’re trusted, proven and effective. Think back to the norovirus outbreak that closed Mesa County schools in November of 2019. The message was essentially the same.

These measures aren’t new to COVID-19. But others, like physical distancing and wearing a covering over your mouth and nose in public, are.  We acknowledge they’re not easy or comfortable. But for our community to retain its status as a standout in the fight against this virus — and the freedoms that come with it — we must each take responsibility for how our individual actions contribute to the big picture. With each precaution we take, the likelihood of contracting or spreading COVID-19 goes down. Follow them all whenever possible, and we’ll come out ahead.

We’re asking for community support, that everyone does his or her part. The long-term solution is herd immunity and a vaccine. Until then, there are actions we can all take to decrease our risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 and increase our ability to continue on the path forward.