Applications for the statewide certification program open Friday, but many businesses across the Denver metro area won’t benefit from the program right away. 

Red Level counties are eligible to participate in the 5 Star State Certification Program if the number of cases, positivity rate and hospitalizations all continuously decline over a two week period. 

Under those parameters Arapahoe, Adams, Boulder and Douglas counties are not currently eligible. But officials in Arapahoe and Douglas counties are optimistic that will change.

“None of our (three) counties are eligible today, but if things continue on the same path of steady decline, we anticipate (that) Arapahoe and Douglas counties will be eligible in a matter of days,” said Becky O’Guin, strategic communications manager for Tri-County Health.

The statewide program will allow certified businesses in Level Red counties to operate at Level Orange capacity limits, which includes 25% indoor dining capacity. 

Adams and Boulder counties are a little further away from being eligible, but local health officials are pleading with county residents to limit holiday gatherings, so counties can become eligible.

In a news release on Thursday, Boulder County Public Health said: “If folks don’t gather over the holidays, and we don’t see a spike in new cases, it will give businesses in our county a chance to launch the program as long as cases and hospitalizations continue to decline and our percent positive rate remains below 10%.” 

Attempts to reach officials from Denver Public Health were unsuccessful on Thursday, but earlier in the day, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said the city is already coordinating their efforts with the goal of making about 7,000 businesses eligible for certification.

“We have every intention of applying.” Hancock said. “At this point in time (it’s) life or death for many of our small businesses. We want to do this right.” 

“Our numbers could turn on a dime and we don’t want to anything that disturbs or disrupts our trends in terms of our numbers going down,” he said.

Hancock added that a working group has already been discussing the program, but declined to give an estimated date on when the county could apply.

Attempts to reach local health officials from Larimer and Weld County were unsuccessful on Thursday. 

Every county can join the voluntary statewide program, but in order to apply local officials must establish an administrative committee that includes the local health agency.

The individual committees will assess businesses on their steps to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, which includes their health and safety protocols, ventilation and measure to accommodate at-risk populations. 

In the event a business does not comply with the mandatory requirements, the committee can remove the certification.

CDPHE also has the right to remove the program from any county that is found to not be performing enforcement, or if cases and hospitalization begin to rise the program may be suspended.

If a county reaches more than 90% of ICU capacity, the program is automatically suspended.