Confirmation that the new coronavirus is spreading in Colorado triggered a new phase of the state’s response Wednesday, with Gov. Jared Polis urging those most at-risk to curtail activities and colleges along the Front Range suspending classroom education.

Those actions came as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Colorado nearly doubled to 33, and the World Health Organization declared the global outbreak a pandemic.

For now, the governor is urging people over 60 and those with underlying health issues to avoid traveling to the high country as medical centers in mountain and resort towns have limited capacity to treat patients. He also encouraged those same people to eschew all large gatherings.

“It appears the virus will be disproportionately hitting our resort and mountain communities first,” Polis said during a news conference Wednesday evening at the state Capitol. “It doesn’t mean it will hit our resort and mountain communities exclusively.”

The state health department is also working on emergency rules that will limit visitors to eldercare facilities, and Polis said he “won’t hesitate” to shut down big public events in the state if the severity of the outbreak continues to increase — and it is expected to do so.

“This will get worse before it gets better,” Polis said, later adding, “We need to do everything that we can to protect those who are most at risk.”

Polis said he will meet with the faith community and operators of large venues over the next few days. Spacing people out in their seats is an option before closing large gathering places, he said.

Polis’ order comes as state health officials found evidence of community transmission of the new coronavirus in Colorado’s mountain communities, which have become hotspots for COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the virus.

Of Colorado’s 33 coronavirus cases, Pitkin County has the most, with nine Australians visiting Aspen having tested positive. Eagle County has four cases and Summit County one.

Community transmission occurs when individuals test positive for the virus but health officials can’t find a source for their exposure, such as travel or contact with an infected person.

State health officials have not yet found evidence of community spread in the Denver region, but Polis said they are acting as though it’s already there.

The state, he said, is potentially on the verge of a “tipping point” for the new coronavirus spreading through communities, and Coloradans should expect to see new cases even as state officials take steps to slow the virus’s reach.

“A single person can spread this virus to tens or dozens of individuals, and that appears to be what’s happening in Pitkin County,” Polis said.

New cases of COVID-19

As part of Colorado’s response to the coronavirus, Polis declared a state of emergency on Tuesday and health officials moved to increase testing.

Among those initiatives was the opening of a drive-up testing facility, which rolled out in Denver on Wednesday and took samples from 160 people. The governor said he wants to open more such facilities, including in the high country.

Polis said the state lab has completed about 300 tests, focusing on samples from sick individuals who have traveled recently or had contact with an infected person.

“This will give us very important data about the overall dispersal in the Denver metropolitan area,” he said.

Colorado’s coronavirus cases are spread throughout 10 counties.

On Wednesday, new cases were announced in Pitkin, Eagle, Gunnison, Denver, Jefferson and Arapahoe counties.

The new cases include nine men and seven women. Most are older than 40, while one woman is in her 20s. Fourteen of those who tested positive are older than 50.

In at least six of the 16 new cases, individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 had traveled out of state or abroad.

Health officials are still investigating how three people — located in Gunnison, Eagle and Arapahoe counties — were exposed to the new coronavirus.

City officials also announced Wednesday that a maintenance worker at Denver International Airport had tested positive and was in isolation.

The state is receiving more than $9.8 million from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which could be used to buy more supplies and staff the emergency response center, said Mike Willis, director of the office of emergency management.

Online learning and cancelations

Now that there is evidence of community transmission in Colorado, public health officials will have to consider the risks of public exposure when making decisions on how to act, said May Chu, a clinical professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health.

“When community transmission is of greater numbers this becomes more risky,” she said in an email. “The most vulnerable must be informed and social distanced. Those who are mildly ill (and ill) should avoid contact with the most vulnerable.”

The implications of the new coronavirus spreading through the state and the United States are already reverberating throughout Colorado as organizations began taking steps Wednesday aimed at slowing transmission.

In Denver, Cory Elementary School closed after a parent of two students tested positive for COVID-19.

And multiple major universities moved all of their classes online, including three of the University of Colorado’s campuses, Colorado State University, Metropolitan State University of Denver, University of Northern Colorado and Fort Lewis College in Durango.

Those schools’ campuses will remain otherwise open.

“It’s really about mitigating the spread in classrooms, and if you look at who is the more at-risk population, it’s folks of a certain age including our faculty,” said Candace Smith, spokeswoman for CU Boulder. “Our residence hall students — think of it as living in an apartment building. They’re the less at-risk population. We have students who can’t go home because they’re from other locations across the world or they have better internet access here.”

The state, Polis said, is recommending schools close for 72 hours for disinfection if a student or staff member test positive for the new coronavirus. Multiple cases of COVID-19 could require a school closing for 14 days, he added.

Wednesday also saw the Denver Parks and Recreation cancel all programs and Google, which has a campus in Boulder, asked employees to work from home until next month.

“Our Colorado character”

Polis, in the end, stressed the personal actions Coloradans can take to help curb the spread of the disease and protect those most at risk: handwashing, increasing the distance between people and avoiding contact like handshakes.

Most flu-like symptoms aren’t caused by the new virus, but people who aren’t feeling well should behave as if they have the most serious illness, Polis said.

“The most important person to stop the spread of the virus is you,” Polis said. “This is really a test of our Colorado character.”

Staff writers Alex Burness, Elizabeth Hernandez, Kirk Mitchell, Conrad Swanson, Sam Tabachnik and Meg Wingerter contributed to this report.