The Board of County Commissioners signed a resolution Saturday night placing the county in a local disaster emergency in response to the outbreak of novel coronavirus.
As of Sunday morning, Grand County did not have any confirmed cases, but has reported a visitor to the area contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
However, county officials expect that won’t last much longer.
“Public health experts anticipate that, due to the contagiousness of the illness and the fact that numerous travelers from around the world visit the county, Grand County expects to see cases of the virus and its transmission in the community soon,” said County Manager Kate McIntire in a release.
Declaring a local disaster emergency allows the county to activate response and recovery aspects of the county’s emergency plans and authorize aid and assistance.
The declaration also comes with the announcement that Grand Fire Chief Brad White will be the incident commander for the COVID-19 Incident Management team.
The county’s COVID-19 hotline can be reached at 970-725-3755.