Wednesday, the city of Glenwood Springs hosted another COVID-19 webcast, which focused on the number of known cases locally and the critical need, still, for more testing.
According to Garfield County Public Health Specialist Mason Hohstadt, 769 specimens have been tested for COVID-19 in Garfield County as of April 21.
Of those specimens collected, 56 or 7.3% have come back positive for COVID-19.
According to Hohstadt, over half of Garfield County’s known COVID-19 cases have been between the ages of 30 and 60.
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“We have more male cases than female cases at this point,” Hohstadt said during Wednesday’s webcast.
Additionally, Hohstadt said of Garfield County’s known cases, COVID-19 had not disproportionally impacted the Latinx communities.
Mayor Jonathan Godes, who also participated in Wednesday’s webinar, said that just because the state will transition from a stay-at-home order to a safer- at-home order on Monday, doesn’t mean locally-imposed restrictions will disappear.
“Don’t assume also that Garfield County and the municipalities will roll back everything in a uniform way,” Godes said. “What is good for the people in Parachute, and appropriate, might not be appropriate for the community that is Glenwood Springs.”
Public health officials have routinely said that a key component to restrictions gradually being lifted is testing availability.
“There are new viral testing modalities that are getting FDA approval,” Dr. Brian Murphy, Valley View Hospital CEO, said during Wednesday’s webcast.
Murphy said Valley View Hospital was aggressively pursuing a COVID-19 testing modality that relied on saliva instead of swabbing in an effort to ramp up community testing.
Referencing a line graph illustrating the number of positive COVID-19 inpatients at Valley View Hospital between March 23 and April 20, Murphy pointed out a sequential decline.
“We are cautiously optimistic that all of the efforts everybody has contributed are making an impact,” Murphy said. “I do believe, like the governor believes, that this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.”