Polis hints at economic reopening alongside neighboring states
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DENVER — Following in the footsteps of states on the East and West Coasts, Gov. Jared Polis suggested that Colorado will work more closely with bordering states about cross-border travel and medical supply trading.
In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Polis said he has had good conversations with the governors of Wyoming, Kansas, Utah, New Mexico and Nebraska about sharing ventilators and monitoring the potential for state-to-state spread, particularly with commuters coming back and forth between Northern Colorado cities and Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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“Even if we somehow were to make great progress here, that would be jeopardized if similar progress wasn’t being made across the border in states that have a high degree of interaction with ours,” he said.
The governors of California, Oregon and Washington state have banded together in their own alliance to re-open together, while New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island have signaled plans to loosen social-distancing requirements in tandem.
The idea behind those alliances is to prevent residents of one state with more stringent social distancing orders from crossing into a less-restrictive state to take advantage of in-person services, potentially causing further spread.
Polis did not specify if his talks were leading to a formal pact between neighboring states. It’s also unclear just how much collaboration Colorado can have with Wyoming, Utah and Nebraska, which have varying social-distancing policies but no statewide stay-at-home orders. The governor’s press office did not return a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m confident we all have approaches that are consistent with one another, but it doesn’t mean it’ll be identical because the trajectory of the coronavirus in those states is going to be slightly different,” he said.
Editor’s note: As a public service, BizWest is making all of its coverage of the COVID-19 virus free to read. Please consider subscribing to BizWest to support our efforts to keep you informed on Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley’s top business news.
DENVER — Following in the footsteps of states on the East and West Coasts, Gov. Jared Polis suggested that Colorado will work more closely with bordering states about cross-border travel and medical supply trading.
In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Polis said he has had good conversations with the governors…
