{"id":2455654,"date":"2020-03-11T17:24:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T23:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/as-pitco-sees-covid-19-cases-garco-still-in-precaution-mode\/"},"modified":"2020-03-11T17:24:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T23:24:00","slug":"as-pitco-sees-covid-19-garco-still-cautious-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/as-pitco-sees-covid-19-garco-still-cautious-mode\/","title":{"rendered":"As PitCo sees COVID-19, GarCo still cautious mode"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The World Health Organization has designated the outbreak to be a global pandemic, and Gov. Jared Polis declared a state of emergency Tuesday to allow for more aggressive prevention systems.<\/p>\n

Despite the likelihood of COVID-19 spread, Garfield County has no confirmed cases yet, giving time for hospitals and health officials time to prepare.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we\u2019re anticipating that Garfield County will have a case at some point, and that is why we are doing so much to prepare right now,\u201d said Carrie Godes, spokesperson for Garfield County Department of County Health.<\/p>\n

With nine presumptive positive cases currently in Aspen, and several cases discovered in Eagle County, Garfield County seems surrounded.<\/p>\n

Screening for symptoms<\/p>\n

Hospitals in both Glenwood Springs and Rifle have implemented aggressive screening measures for everyone walking into their facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe screen everyone, including employees, as well as visitors, guests and vendors, every day before they come in,\u201d said Annick Pruett, spokesperson for the Grand River Health Department.<\/p>\n

The first question is whether the person has lower respiratory symptoms, like coughing, or a fever. If the person has those symptoms, there are seven additional questions, which include questions about travel.<\/p>\n

If the person meets one of those seven criteria, they are asked not to enter the facility (unless in need of urgent medical care) and told to call providers.<\/p>\n

The goal is to keep hospital running for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our services are open, we just certainly want to keep our community as safe as possible to limit the transmission of the virus, as well as our staff members,\u201d Pruett said.<\/p>\n

Flattening the curve<\/p>\n

Valley View Hospital has similar screening measures, and chief medical officer David Brooks said during a remote town hall Tuesday that everything they are doing is to try to keep the hospital working for patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really trying to flatten the curve, because if we get 20 really sick patients immediately, it puts us over the capacity to care for them. If we can take those 20 patients and spread it out over two months, 10 and 10, we can effectively care for them,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

One way that would help hospitals if the coronavirus spreads is for people with mild symptoms that don\u2019t need immediate treatment to stay home, Brooks said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, our recommendation\u2026 is for those asymptomatic and mild symptoms to stay at home, self isolate, and get better,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cBecause the majority of people who get sick with this coronavirus, 80 percent will be asymptomatic, or have mild symptoms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The testing is currently being done in Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment labs, and the state can only complete about 166 per day.<\/p>\n

Many places in the state are looking into other options, like drive through testing facilities, but for now, increase of testing measures isn\u2019t a priority for Valley View.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that that\u2019s a little bit of a source of frustration for some people, because they want to know if they have it or if they\u2019ve been exposed,\u201d Dawn Scocul, chief nursing officer for Valley View, said during the town hall Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Testing is also limited to certain criteria in Colorado: Those who have fever and respiratory symptoms, and have traveled to China, japan, iran, Italy, South Korea, or places in Washington state or California within 14 days of symptoms.<\/p>\n

Exposure to confirmed COVID-19 patients, or severe respiratory ailments, like pneumonia, with no medical explanation, could also be possible cases.<\/p>\n

Events and elderly risk<\/span><\/p>\n

Grand River has severely cut back on visitation to patients in the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have very restricted access to in-patient unit. Basically, if there\u2019s a minor, the parents are allowed to visit, and if there is an older person, just their immediate family is allowed in,\u201d Pruett said.<\/p>\n

If someone is nearing the end of life, there is greater flexibility, and pastors or priests will be allowed, Pruett said.<\/p>\n

At Grand River\u2019s nursing home, social events and visits have also been severely restricted.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo visitors and no outside events, no large gatherings until further notice,\u201d Pruett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, if a family member is near the end of life, we make some concessions,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

County health officials say that for events, organizers should consider whether an event could be postponed, but haven\u2019t advised widespread cancellations yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere could be a potential time when we would have so much community spread that public health would have to declare something,\u201d Godes said, but those conditions have not yet been met.<\/p>\n

As a town that depends on tourism, the coronavirus could also impact the economy travel drops off significantly, that doesn\u2019t seem to have happened.<\/p>\n

Lisa Langer, promotion director for Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association, said she hasn\u2019t heard tourism companies report an unseasonal dip in visitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I have heard is that a couple of international groups that were coming have canceled,\u201d Langer said.<\/p>\n

On the whole, Langer expects the next few weeks of spring break to be very strong in terms of tourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all going strong here, as far as I\u2019m concerned. No need to fear,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

During his emergency declaration Tuesday, Polis made a point to say Colorado is still open for business and tourism.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The World Health Organization has designated the outbreak to be a global pandemic, and Gov. Jared Polis declared a state of emergency Tuesday to allow for more aggressive prevention systems. Despite the likelihood of COVID-19 spread, Garfield County has no confirmed cases yet, giving time for hospitals and health officials time to prepare. \u201cAt this […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 11:13:57","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}