Colorado lawmakers debate a bill that would require hospitals to allow patients to have a visitor

Senate Bill 22-053 would require hospitals, nursing care facilities and assisted living residences to permit patients to have at least one visitor during their stay.

“It's never good to allow someone to die alone, and so this is to address that and figure out how do we work that fine line in a pandemic,” said bill co-sponsor Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg (R-Logan). “One family member or one person that can help that patient, I don't think that's too much to ask.”

The bill would also prohibit these facilities from adopting policies that prohibit visitation for the sole reason of reducing the spread of diseases.

Request denied for audit of COVID testing contracts

Denver Gazette: An audit request from Sen. Rob Woodward, R-Loveland, for two contracts between the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and two labs handling COVID-19 testing was turned down on a 4-4 tie by the Legislative Audit Committee.

The committee is half Democrat, half Republican, hence the potential for a tie vote.

Woodward first submitted the audit request to the committee last July but withdrew it in October after facing a potential “no” vote.

As first reported by The Denver Gazette last year, the first contract was with Curative Labs, which snagged a $90 million, no-bid contract with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to provide surveillance testing in Colorado nursing homes in 2020, where one of every 15 residents died from the coronavirus.