DENVER (CBS4) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations in Colorado continues to increase. On Friday, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported 500 people hospitalized with the virus in the state, the largest number since February 5.

The 7-day average positivity rate among COVID-19 tests in Colorado is 5.71%. The state reported 2,260 new cases of the virus on Friday.

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So far, nearly a quarter of the state’s population is fully immunized against COVID-19. There are currently 1,316 vaccine providers across the state.

CDPHE updates COVID-19 data each day at covid19.colorado.gov/data .

COVID-19 Data as of 4 p.m. Friday:

READ MORE: Colorado Supreme Court Censures Arapahoe County District Court Judge Natalie Chase

Vaccines (Phase 1A & 1B):

• 1,316 Total Vaccine Providers
• 2,276,093 People Immunized with One Dose (40% of state population)
• 1,391,781 People Fully Immunized (24% of state population)
• 3,316,015 Cumulative Doses Distributed
• 3,537,548 Cumulative Doses Administered

Testing:

• 39,222 tests conducted on April 15 with 5.71% positivity rate (7-day moving average)
• 4.95% daily positivity rate on April 15

Hospital Data:

MORE NEWS: Colorado Weather: Continued Cool And Unsettled Ahead Of Next Storm

• 500 Patients currently hospitalized, 87% of facilities reporting (+12)
• 51 Patients under investigation for probable cases, not lab confirmed (-2)
• 70 Patients discharged/transferred in past 24 hours (+1)
• 7% Facilities anticipating staff shortages within next week (+1)
• 1% Facilities anticipating PPE shortages within next week (+0)
• 4% Facilities anticipating ICU bed shortages within next week (+1)
• 32% Critical care ventilators in use (+0)

Case Summary:

• 487,578 cases (+2,260)
• 2,512 Variants of concern (-282)
• 88 Variants under investigation (+49)
• 26,703 hospitalized (+42)
• 2,826,461 tested (+8,739)
• 7,436,448 test encounters (+46,413)
• 6,186 deaths among cases (+9)
• 6,330 deaths due to COVID-19 (+11)
• 4,609 outbreaks (+13)

YOU could be committing a crime and see yourself slapped with a hefty fine simply by arguing in your own home, due to strict council rules.

This is due to Community Protection Notices (CPNs), which are issued by local councils to prevent residents from disrupting their neighbours’ everyday lives.

The rules were introduced by former Prime Minister Theresa May when she was Home Secretary in 2014 and can be given to anyone above the age of 16.

If you do anything which is deemed to be disruptive to your neighbours, such as arguing or crying loudly, your local council could slap you with a notice which bans you from continuing.

A Freedom of Information request last year by The Sun found that in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, residents are forbidden from arguing, banging loudly or crying in their own home.

In December 2015, the council in the area served one resident a notice “not to create any wailing, jabbering, crying and hammering on the wall type noises” after a neighbour complained.

It said that the noises should not be “capable of being heard outside of any property that x [the neighbour] may reside at any time of the day and night”.

The council added that it hasn’t had any reports of the notice being breached, and said last year that it hasn’t issued any fines so far.

In other councils, people have been served with CPN notices for offences such as f eeding the birds, listening to the radio loudly or leaving the bins out for too long.

Data from 190 local councils showed that between 2014 and 2018 –  at least 29 people were told they risked a criminal prosecution for feeding birds – many in their own gardens.

300 more received letters warning of fines and court action for putting their wheelie bins in the wrong spot for collecting or putting rubbish in the wrong container.

If individuals are served a CPN and fail to comply, they face an on-the-spot fine of £100 or a fine of up to £2,500 if prosecuted.

Meanwhile, businesses can be fined up to a whopping £20,000.

How to protest a Community Protection Notice

If you’re slapped with a CPN, you can appeal it in the magistrates court.

You do have to stop the behaviour until your appeal is heard.

Grounds for appeal can include things like:

• If the behaviour didn’t happen
• If it doesn’t affect local people’s quality of life
• If it’s not persistent or continuous
• If the behaviour isn’t unreasonable
• If it’s something you can’t reasonably control
• If the requirements or notice periods are unreasonable.
• If the notice was issued to the wrong person

The appeal must either quash the notice, modify the notice (for instance by giving an extension) or dismiss the appeal.

You could be slapped with a £100 fine by your local council from swearing in the street.

Dog owners also risk fines of up to £100 simply for not carrying poo bags on them in some areas of the UK.

Meanwhile, a couple face prosecution if they look at their neighbour’s house after falling out over building work .

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BRITS who claim Working Tax Credits will get a one-off payment worth £500, Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed in today’s budget.

The move echoes the extension to the £20 uplift in Universal Credit payments, designed to help with the ongoing affects the pandemic .

Follow our UK politics live blog for the very latest news and updates…

The Chancellor said that because of the way that the Working Tax Credits system works, people will not be able to get the extra weekly £20.

Instead, everyone who gets the benefit will get a £500 one-off payment.

This is what happened last year, when working credit claimants received a one-off lump sum of £1,040.

This was just one of several big changes announced in today’s budget.

The chancellor confirmed:

• Furlough will be extended for six months until the end of September – with employers coughing up contributions from July onwards
• Thousands more people will be brought into the self-employment help schemes
• A fourth self-employed grant of up to £7,500 and a fifth one will come over the summer
• Fuel duty will be frozen yet again in a huge win for The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign
• The UK’s Covid vaccine rollout will receive a £1.65 billion boost
• Universal Credit’s £20 a week boost will continue for another six months – while those on Working Tax Credits will get an extra £500 one off payment
• The National Living Wage will rise to £8.91 from April
• The VAT cut will be extended for another six months – and then it will go up to 12% for another six months after that
• Rishi pledged £2.8million for Britain’s bid to host the 2030 world cup
• The Stamp Duty Holiday was extended for another three months in full – and will taper down for three months after that for properties up to £250,000
• A new mortgage guarantee scheme will offer 95 per cent loans to first-time buyers to get on the ladder
• He will freeze the income tax brackets, meaning Brits will no longer benefit from planned increases to the amount that can be earned tax-free
• The price of a pint will be be frozen as Rishi Sunak scraps alcohol duty rises
• Brits can get up to £1million as part of a £150million fund to rescue pubs and football clubs from closure
• Grant funding will be available to businesses in England through a new £5 billion Restart Grant scheme to help the high street
• A new freeport scheme will come in giving tax breaks for firms in eight areas of the country

Mr Sunak said: “To support low-income households, the Universal Credit uplift of £20 a week will continue for a further six months, well beyond the end of this national lockdown

“We’ll provide Working Tax Credit claimants with equivalent support for the next six months.

“Because of the way that system works operationally, we’ll need to do so with a one-off payment of £500.”

Lots of people have been switched from Tax Credits to the newer Universal Credit system, which means they would already be getting the uplifts.

New benefits claimants are usually added to Universal Credit rather than Working Tax Credit – unless they are eligible for the severe disability premium.

But there are also plenty of people who are still on the old-style system, and the final deadline for being moved across has been pushed back to 2024.

Anyone who hasn’t yet been transferred across will now be eligible for this new one-off payment.

The lump sum will be paid automatically so you don’t need to do anything to get it.

You should receive it by mid-April via the same method that you usually get your tax credits paid.

If the payment doesn’t arrive by the end of April, you can ask for help via the Treasury customer services helpline.

The budget documents also confirm that the government will continue

This allows these claimants to remain eligible for Working Tax Credit rather than losing the benefit because the pandemic has impacted their earnings.

Other changes to the benefits system include a six-month extension of the Universal Credit uplift which will give people an extra £20 per week.

The government has also confirmed that it will continue the suspension of the Minimum Income Floor (MIF) for self-employed Universal Credit claimants until the end of July 2021.

The MIF will be gradually reintroduced from August, but DWP work coaches will be given discretion to not apply it on an individual basis where they assess that claimants’ earnings continue to be affected by COVID-19 restrictions.

DWP is also changing the way it reclaims money from Universal Credit allowances.

From April 2021, the period over which Universal Credit advances are recovered will increase to 24 months and the maximum rate at which deductions can be made will reduce from 30% to 25% of the standard allowance.

These measures were previously due to be implemented from October 2021.

From June, care leavers up to the age of 25 and those under the age of 25 who have spent at least three months in a homeless hostel will be exempt from the SAR in Universal Credit and Housing Benefit, helping more vulnerable people to access suitable housing.

Universal Credit £20 a week boost extended for six months in today’s Budget.

Rishi Sunak Budget announcement 2021: What did the Chancellor say today, Wednesday, March 3?

Self-employed grants: Rishi Sunak to give 600,000 extra grants up to £7,500.

DENVER (CBS4) – The official snow total in Denver from the most recent storm to hit Colorado was 5.7 inches. The season total is now 73.3 inches which is almost two feet above normal and we’re not done!

The heavy, wet snow that fell from Thursday afternoon through Friday morning was also enough to call this season the snowiest since 2012-2013.

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If Denver officially receives just 5.1 inches more, this season will be the snowiest since 1991-1992 when 79.0 inches was recorded.

Many tree branches snapped under the weight of the snow Thursday night and made some roads impassible including along 13th Avenue in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Most of the additional snow that falls during the day on Friday will be in the foothills and mountains. Locations along Highway 285 above Morrison and Interstate 70 above Genesee could get up to 4 inches of additional snow through Friday night while mountain areas above 9,500 feet could easily get another 6 inches.

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For the Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins areas, additional light snow showers are possible mainly in the morning on Friday but any additional accumulation will be minor. A few more flurries or isolated light snow showers could develop through Saturday morning with no additional accumulation expected.

Meanwhile, most ski areas that remain open in Colorado reported 3 to 10 inches of snow Friday morning. Conditions will be good for April this weekend including at the four ski areas scheduled to close on Sunday: Aspen Mountain, Echo Mountain, Eldora, and Vail.

In terms of temperatures, Friday and Saturday will be very chilly for April with highs in the 30s for the metro area on Friday and then 40s on Saturday. Skies will clear Saturday night which will mean very cold temperatures going into Sunday morning. Most of the Denver metro area will experience a hard freeze which in Colorado is usually defined as temperatures falling below 28 degrees for at least 2-3 hours. That seems very likely Sunday morning.

Sunday will be sunny and dry before yet another storm system enters the Rocky Mountain region on Monday with a good chance for more snow. Could it be the 5.1 inches we need to make this season the snowiest in 29 years. That’s probably unlikely but not impossible. Stay tuned!

MORE NEWS: Colorado Weather: Continued Cool And Unsettled Ahead Of Next Storm

(CBS4) — The heavy spring snow broke branches and downed power lines, leaving thousands without power Friday morning. At 6 a.m., Xcel Energy reported about 6,400 customers without power across Colorado. About 3,400 of those are in the Denver metro area.

There were about 600 outages in Englewood, about 500 in Denver along Speer, plus hundreds more in Lakewood and Arvada neighborhoods.

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“There seems to be even more trees down with this storm that brought 5-6 inches compared to the blizzard last month that brought 27 inches! This snow is ridiculously HEAVY,” CBS4 Meteorologist Ashton Altieri wrote on Twitter .

Our crew came across a downed power line in the middle of the street in Capitol Hill neighborhood — that people were driving over. We called the authorities to report it.

A huge branch fell at 11th and Pennsylvania in Denver, landed on a Toyota truck and blocking the street.

READ MORE: Colorado Supreme Court Censures Arapahoe County District Court Judge Natalie Chase

Maggie Zawalski came out to go to yoga class this morning when she found out a tree fell on her truck. Many trees have fallen on cars in the Capital Hill neighborhood. @CBSDenver #4wx #cowx pic.twitter.com/Qvyhcw5APd

— Justin Adams (@justinadamsTV) April 16, 2021

MORE NEWS: Colorado Weather: Continued Cool And Unsettled Ahead Of Next Storm

We are experiencing our snowiest season in eight years . If we get just 5.1 inches more this season, it will be our snowiest since 1991-1992.