{"id":2456053,"date":"2020-03-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=323012"},"modified":"2020-03-20T08:32:19","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T14:32:19","slug":"officials-urge-distance-as-virus-bears-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/officials-urge-distance-as-virus-bears-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials urge distance as virus bears down"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Jose Sol\u00eds wipes down a chair in the superintendent\u2019s office in Aspen High School on Thursday, March 19, 2020. The crew will be finished disinfecting the school on Friday and are asking that no one enters any building on campus to keep it clean. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Reports of an impromptu party at an Aspen park this week have irked local public health officials, who think it\u2019s more evidence that residents are not taking social-distancing measures seriously enough amid the COVID-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The story) got us thinking that people are underestimating what (social distancing) means for them,\u201d said Bill Linn, Aspen assistant police chief and spokesman for the team managing the local coronavirus response. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of frustrating to learn that not everyone is taking this seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a significant Aspen-area economic indicator released Thursday appeared unsurprisingly bleak, as airlines prepared to cut commercial air service to the Aspen airport<\/a> in the near future.<\/p>\n

Still, Pitkin County didn\u2019t appear nearly as bad off as neighboring Eagle County, where the number of COVID-19 cases was surging Thursday and continuing to impact that county\u2019s health care system, according to a state official. In fact, no one has been hospitalized with COVID-19 at Aspen Valley Hospital<\/a> on Thursday, with no signs of a surge in patients materializing so far, said Jennifer Slaughter, AVH spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have zero patients hospitalized at AVH with COVID,\u201d Slaughter said Thursday by text.<\/p>\n

State and local public health officials also said Thursday they had no immediate plans to go the route of San Miguel County, where local public health officials Wednesday ordered residents to shelter in place and partnered with a biotech company to test the entire county for COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Finally, the state public health department Thursday amended its order closing bars and restaurants and closed other \u201cnon-essential personal services,\u201d including hair and nail salons, spas, tattoo and massage parlors, horse tracks and off-track betting sites, according to an updated public health order. That order has been extended to run through April 30<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But it was a Pitkin County commissioner\u2019s experience Tuesday with a group of about 20 young people drinking beer in Rio Grande Park and celebrating their last day working together that resonated with some local officials leading the response to the virus.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Patti Clapper called Aspen police<\/a> on the crew after one member became \u201cnasty\u201d with her after she suggested they practice better social distancing. The incident occurred before the state health department issued an order banning gatherings of more than 10 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople do (social distancing) in the grocery store but not with their friends,\u201d Linn said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re saying you\u2019ve got to change social norms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not enough to do your part around strangers. You have to do it in all your circles.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, getting together with a small group at a park or field for a workout is fine provided people maintain the recommended 6-foot distance, he said. Heading over to a co-worker\u2019s home for a happy hour cocktail when you\u2019re not able to see them at the office because everyone\u2019s working from home, however, is not fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like we\u2019re trying to squash anyone\u2019s social life,\u201d Linn said. \u201cBut if you\u2019re sitting in close proximity to someone for an extended period of time, you\u2019re at risk for infection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linn also offered a piece of advice to those who use dating apps.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow about this?\u201d he said. \u201cTurn off the Tinder app. The truth is this is not the time for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, keep your distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is that it doesn\u2019t work to say it\u2019s OK (to practice social distancing) around this group and it\u2019s not OK around that group,\u201d Linn said. \u201cYou can\u2019t say if someone is infectious or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Bookman, the Colorado public health department\u2019s COVID incident commander, echoed those sentiments Thursday during a statewide media conference call.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community needs to come to understand that the only way we\u2019re going to stop this illness is through social distancing,\u201d Bookman said. \u201cPeople need to keep their distance wherever possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while that distancing may save lives, it is cratering both the national and local economies.<\/p>\n

February, for example, was the \u201cbest ever and one of the best single month performances\u201d in the history of Aspen Skiing Co.\u2019s central reservations agency, according to a Skico executive. March, however, has been another story.<\/p>\n

Though occupancy numbers are not yet available for March, bookings for the month began 2% down amid initial virus concerns, then \u201cdropped considerably\u201d during the first week as COVID-19 began to impact the Aspen area, according to an occupancy update Thursday by Kristi Kavanaugh, Skico vice president of sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce it was reported in week two that we had presumptive positives, the cancellations began to outpace the new bookings,\u201d Kavanaugh wrote.<\/p>\n

Then came Gov. Jared Polis\u2019 order Saturday closing all of Colorado\u2019s ski mountains, which \u201ccreated a cascade of cancellations and subsequent business closures,\u201d according to the update.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile clarity on the full scope of business ramifications throughout the community is murky, we can share that (Skico\u2019s reservations agency, Stay Aspen Snowmass) is forecasted to lose 17% of its full winter business due to the closure,\u201d Kavanaugh wrote.<\/p>\n

Aspen\u2019s commercial air service also is about to be cut drastically, according to an update by local travel consultant Bill Tomcich included in Kavanaugh\u2019s update.<\/p>\n

Delta Airlines stopped direct flights to Aspen from Atlanta and Los Angeles on Wednesday, while United Airlines planned to stop all non-Denver flights by this weekend, according to Tomcich, a consultant to Fly Aspen Snowmass. American Airlines also will suspend all flights to Aspen, though it plans to resume flights from Dallas by early June.<\/p>\n

United and Delta also plan to cut flights to Aspen from Denver and Salt Lake City, Tomcich said.<\/p>\n

Aspen airport Director John Kinney confirmed those changes Thursday. He also said \u201cload factors,\u201d or the number of sold seats on flights in and out of Aspen, will drop to below 20% for the next two weeks, and on some days will dip into the single digits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact of not flying airplanes in this country is real profound,\u201d Kinney said.<\/p>\n

And while the economics surrounding COVID-19 are painful and devastating to many in the Aspen area and beyond, state officials reported no more positive virus cases in Pitkin County on Thursday, and no one in Aspen Valley Hospital has it.<\/p>\n

That stood in stark contrast to Eagle County, where Bookman said public health officials have seen \u201ca significant surge of patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clearly the area of the state with the highest number of patients,\u201d he said, \u201cand it\u2019s clearly impacting their health care system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state health department has no clear epidemiological evidence showing how Eagle County became such a hot spot, Bookman said. However, the department has seen evidence of \u201cwidespread community transmission\u201d and a high rate of respiratory illness consistent with COVID-19, he said.<\/p>\n

In San Miguel County, local public health officials partnered with a private bio-tech company called United Biomedical to test all county residents who wanted it. The company uses a blood test to determine if someone has COVID-19, as opposed to a swab used by the state health department in a different test.<\/p>\n

The test is free for county residents but not mandatory.<\/p>\n

Bookman said state public health officials are assessing the efficacy of the blood test and have not yet made a determination about it.<\/p>\n

San Miguel County, which includes Telluride, is the only county in Colorado so far to issue a shelter in place order.<\/p>\n

jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Jose Sol\u00eds wipes down a chair in the superintendent\u2019s office in Aspen High School on Thursday, March 19, 2020. The crew will be finished disinfecting the school on Friday and are asking that no one enters any building on campus to keep it clean. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Reports of an impromptu […]<\/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-2456053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 09:11:25","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\/2456053","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=2456053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2456069,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456053\/revisions\/2456069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}