{"id":1319565,"date":"2020-04-21T17:26:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T23:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=995811"},"modified":"2020-04-21T17:26:11","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T23:26:11","slug":"garfield-coroner-can-now-field-test-for-covid-19-in-cases-of-unattended-deaths-in-the-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/garfield-coroner-can-now-field-test-for-covid-19-in-cases-of-unattended-deaths-in-the-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Garfield coroner can now field test for COVID-19 in cases of unattended deaths in the county"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"830\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/CoronerCandidate-GPI-021514-1005x1240-1005x1240.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/CoronerCandidate-GPI-021514-1005x1240.jpg 1005w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/CoronerCandidate-GPI-021514-1005x1240-122x150.jpg 122w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/CoronerCandidate-GPI-021514-1005x1240-263x325.jpg 263w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/CoronerCandidate-GPI-021514-1005x1240-503x620.jpg 503w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\"><figcaption><strong>Garfield County Coroner Robert Glassmire<\/strong><br \/><em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The Garfield County Coroner\u2019s Office is now better able to determine if any unattended or otherwise curious deaths in the county are the result of COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>Coroner Robert Glassmire said that, as of Monday, his office has a limited ability to test for COVID-19 in the field. That\u2019s done by using a special nasopharyngeal (NP) swab and sending the specimen to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment lab.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrior to this, we would have had to transport the decedent to the coroner\u2019s office contract pathologist in Grand Junction,\u201d Glassmire said.<\/p>\n<p>Questions around unattended deaths in homes, and the prospect that they could have been the result of undiagnosed COVID-19, has been raised in more populated areas of the U.S. as the coronavirus has spread.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/pi-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In Garfield County, there have been 15 unattended deaths since March 1. However, in all but one of those cases Glassmire said the decedents were determined to have been low-risk for COVID-19, the potentially fatal disease that\u2019s caused by the novel coronavirus.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe one patient, who was elderly, was diagnosed with a terminal disease, prescribed hospice and had some symptoms of COVID-19,\u201d Glassmire said. \u201cThis decedent was not tested and custody of the body was released directly to the funeral home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In any case where the coroner\u2019s office responds to a place of death, a determination is made whether that person was at low or higher risk for COVID-19, Glassmire said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is based on the decedent\u2019s symptoms prior to death, family symptoms or known exposures to COVID-19,\u201d he said. \u201cMany factors might determine if a decedent gets tested.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn general, if they are higher risk, we will perform testing. If they are lower risk, we will not perform testing.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Garfield County on March 14, the county has had two confirmed deaths related to the disease, which has been declared a global pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>As of the latest statistics released by the CDPHE Tuesday afternoon, there had been 71 confirmed cases in Garfield County through April 20 \u2014 same as the previous day\u2019s report.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Statewide, the number rose from 10,106 cases to 10,447, and the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths was 486, up from 449 the prior day.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Garfield County hospitals continue to test for COVID-19, but the number of patients needing hospitalization has not increased dramatically.<\/p>\n<p>As of Tuesday, Grand River Hospital in Rifle reported one additional patient needing treatment from last week. The hospital has now admitted two patients since the outbreak began, one of whom was transferred to another hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 333 coronavirus tests administered to patients at Grand River, 15 have come back positive and 11 were still pending.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPatient volumes at Grand River Health remain manageable,\u201d the hospital said in its twice-weekly statement. \u201cThe hospital is able to care for positive COVID-19 patients, should they require this level of care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs, as of Tuesday, had not seen an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients treated since last Thursday, holding at 15. Of those, 12 have been discharged.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/garfield-coroner-can-now-field-test-for-covid-19-in-cases-of-unattended-deaths-in-the-county\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Garfield County Coroner Robert Glassmire The Garfield County Coroner\u2019s Office is now better able to determine if any unattended or otherwise curious deaths in the county are the result of COVID-19. Coroner Robert Glassmire said that, as of Monday, his office has a limited ability to test for COVID-19 in the field. That\u2019s done by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1319565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-23 01:15:34","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":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}