{"id":44513,"date":"2020-03-25T18:14:41","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T00:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=380981"},"modified":"2020-03-25T18:14:41","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T00:14:41","slug":"coronavirus-response-adds-strain-to-summit-county-resources-but-officials-say-they-have-the-supplies-they-need-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/coronavirus-response-adds-strain-to-summit-county-resources-but-officials-say-they-have-the-supplies-they-need-for-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus response adds strain to Summit County resources, but officials say they have the supplies they need for now"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Chris Cuculis of Summit Fire & EMS demonstrates how to disinfect COVID-19 from the interior of a fire engine March 13.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

DILLON \u2014 Summit County officials are going to new lengths to make sure that essential personnel in the community have all of the supplies and equipment they need to continue serving the public.<\/p>\n

But the strain on local resources has become apparent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been wild,\u201d said Brian Bovaird, Summit County\u2019s emergency management director. \u201cIf we had an emergency incident of this magnitude in any other imaginable time, I\u2019d be bringing in resources from around the country to give us support. But with this, everybody around the world needs those same resources. It is unprecedented in terms of the level of complexity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the county has been able to keep up with the rapidly growing demand for supplies so far. Bovaird said the county\u2019s public health department keeps a robust stockpile of supplies for potential surges like the COVID-19 response.<\/p>\n

As orders for more supplies continue to go out to the state\u2019s emergency operations center, other state and federal efforts have helped. Last week, the county received a shipment of supplies from the state\u2019s emergency medical caches, including essentials like gowns, glasses, gloves and N95 masks \u2014 perhaps the most precious piece of equipment for first responders at the moment and essential to continuing some services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re monitoring our burn rates to make sure we\u2019re projecting not only days but several weeks ahead of time due to anticipated delays in getting replenishments,\u201d Summit Fire & EMS Chief Jeff Berino said about the masks. He continued to say that the district has been able to keep usage low so far with low call volumes and that he feels comfortable with at least a 10-14 day supply.<\/p>\n

Though, Berino noted that the masks are absolutely essential to operations. If supplies do run out, there is a Plan B in the form of battery-powered respirators, but the department doesn\u2019t carry them on every engine. And he said responders won\u2019t be sent out without proper equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it got to the worst-case scenario, I\u2019d have our crews not respond to calls where they could become infected,\u201d Berino said. \u201cIf the rescuers get sick, we can\u2019t help. \u2026 It would be like running into a fire without the air tanks we need to breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that in mind, the county also has tapped the regional strategic national stockpile. Bovaird said the county picked up its first allocation of \u201cseveral hundred masks\u201d from the stockpile Tuesday in Routt County, and he is expecting more deliveries staggered over the next 4-6 weeks. Though, the state and federal allocations likely won\u2019t be enough if call loads increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t by any stretch of the imagination meet our medium or long-term requirements,\u201d Bovaird said. \u201cIn the emergency operations center, we\u2019re looking to identify vendors in any number of ways that can also provide us with that equipment. \u2026 It really is a matter of support from the state and federal level, but we\u2019re also opening up the checkbooks and purchasing it wherever we can find suppliers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Summit Fire & EMS officials walk staff through a refresher training on personal protective equipment March 9. <\/strong>
Courtesy Summit Fire & EMS<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Cuculis of Summit Fire & EMS demonstrates how to disinfect COVID-19 from the interior of a fire engine March 13.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com DILLON \u2014 Summit County officials are going to new lengths to make sure that essential personnel in the community have all of the supplies and equipment they need to continue serving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 17:47:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}