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DENVER (KDVR) – After a recent of spike of COVID-19 cases at University of Colorado Boulder, Denver city officials are calling on all colleges and universities to issue additional coronavirus regulations to stop the spread of the virus among students and student athletes.

“The risk of continuing to spread this deadly virus is real and made even more evident by the abrupt spike in cases on and near college campuses,” Mayor Michael B. Hancock said. “Being young does not make you immune.”

Daily health screenings are now required of students, staff, faculty and guests on campuses. The city is also requiring all confirmed cases of COVID-19 to be reported to Denver Department of Public Health and Environment within 24 hours. 

Hancock said Thursday afternoon he is now requiring all student-athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, medical personnel and anyone else attending indoor and outdoor athletic activities to wear face coverings, this including during practices and games. Those individuals also must adhere to the same face-covering requirements while traveling to and from all athletic activities with another individual. All visiting teams must adhere to the same face-covering requirements while in Denver. Exceptions apply to sports that can allow socially distant games and practices, such as tennis.

Enforcement of these additional requirements ultimately comes down to the colleges, which were asked to develop and implement public health order compliance plans by Sept. 30. These plans need to utilize campus security, campus police and other resources necessary to ensure that students are following existing public health orders, regardless of whether they reside on or off campus.

The college crackdown also includes restricting who can enter dormitories and recommends that institutes of higher education voluntarily suspend all nonessential in-person extracurricular social activities sponsored or supported by the college or university.

The Pepsi Center will also have a designated lane for college students needing coronavirus testing until it shuts down on Sept. 30.

You can watch Mayor Hancock’s full news conference, in which he also talks about new locations for COVID-19 testing, below: