City of Boulder issues Stay-at-Home order, halts Buffs practices

New cases of COVID-19 have spiked in Boulder recently, causing the City of Boulder to issue a stay-at-home order for college-aged residents.

The order is effective as of 4 p.m. on Thursday, September 24th, and applies to all Boulder residents between the ages of 18 and 22. The order is designed to halt transmission of the virus between University of Colorado students, who despite classes going fully online Wednesday, have seen more than 1,300 probable cases of COVID-19.

According to the ordinance, college-aged residents “may not participate in any gatherings of any size, whether indoors, outdoors, on or off campus, or with individuals of any age.” The City of Boulder further distinguished 36 local addresses that have repeatedly been in violation of public health orders, most of which belong to fraternities.

An impact of this order is that Colorado Buffaloes athletics will now halt workouts and practices for at least two weeks, per an athletics spokesperson. This comes after Bryan McGinnis, CU’s director of football operations, was fined by the city for not obtaining a large group permit when more than 100 players hiked Mount Sanitas together, many of whom did not wear masks or follow social distancing guidelines.

It goes without saying that having no practices for two weeks is blow for the Buffs if and when they resume playing games. The Pac-12 has not yet announced a football return, but if it does happen, late October or early November would be the return target. As for basketball, the NCAA has ruled that college play will start on Nov. 25 and that practices can begin on Oct. 14.