{"id":2456537,"date":"2020-03-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=323562"},"modified":"2020-03-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T06:00:00","slug":"pitkin-co-releases-preliminary-self-reported-symptom-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/pitkin-co-releases-preliminary-self-reported-symptom-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitkin Co. releases preliminary self-reported symptom results"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Healthcare providers prepare for their first scheduled appointment at a coronavirus testing location at the Aspen Volunteer Fire Department\u2019s Aspen Village Location on Thursday, March 12, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

On Monday evening, Pitkin County Public Health\u2019s symptom tracker results were made available to the public on the department website.<\/p>\n

The tracker, which relies on self-reporting of COVID-19-related symptoms by county residents through an online survey, was launched March 24<\/a> in an effort to see how coronavirus disease symptoms may be moving through the community. Another survey aimed at gauging the mental health of the county community while social distancing and quarantining also was rolled out on the same day.<\/p>\n

As of 6 p.m. Monday, 176 symptomatic county residents had participated in the survey over the past week, according to the tracker data. That\u2019s about 1% of the county population.<\/p>\n

A large number of the survey participants reported their symptoms first began between March 11 and March 18, but the onset of symptoms has seemed to slow since then, based on the preliminary tracker results. (Through Sunday there have been 29 confirmed cases in Pitkin County, according to state data<\/a><\/i>.)<\/p>\n

March 18 is the date Pitkin County restricted group and event size to less than 10 people, signaling to Karen Koenemann, county public health director, that the spread may be slowing and social distancing may be working.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is the preliminary results show the rate of spread is slowing down. We attribute that to the aggressive public health orders and actions taken by the community to isolate themselves,\u201d Koenemann said in a news release Monday.<\/p>\n

While Pitkin County officials say the symptom tracker data \u2014 which is still open to residents for self-reporting<\/a><\/i> \u2014 can help identify trend lines and is a useful tool, county officials know it doesn\u2019t tell the whole story of community spread of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the Pitkin County Incident Management Team overseeing the local coronavirus response is continuing to focus on securing COVID-19 tests for a more accurate, epidemiological picture of the virus\u2019 public health impact on Aspen and Pitkin County.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal was to have tests here yesterday,\u201d said Bill Linn, spokesperson for the incident management team, relatively speaking.<\/p>\n

On the same day the county issued its stay-at-home public health order, officials also began to make plans to bring community-wide testing for coronavirus to Aspen and Pitkin County, putting in an order for at least 1,000 tests from Englewood-based Aytu Bioscience Inc.<\/p>\n

As previously reported<\/a>, the test requires a finger prick of blood sample and can deliver results in two to 10 minutes at the same location where the test is administered.<\/p>\n

But as of Monday evening, a week later, Linn said the county has no clear date for when the tests will arrive. And although Linn acknowledged that other private companies have other test types on the market, the county isn\u2019t interested in ordering just any COVID-19 test.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of people out there are saying \u2018hurry up and get testing,\u2019 but we want to ensure our testing is of epidemiological value and is accurate enough,\u201d Linn said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to tell someone they\u2019re healthy and don\u2019t have the virus and then for that not be true.\u201d<\/p>\n

To ensure the county\u2019s community-wide testing program will be safe for medical professionals to conduct, and is accurate, efficient and effective in providing the data needed to help understand the local spread of COVID-19, Linn said a group of local physicians are researching and evaluating all of the test options on the market.<\/p>\n

As of Monday, Linn said the Aytu Bioscience Inc. tests were the county\u2019s \u201cbest lead so far,\u201d but that officials are \u201cdiscussing and researching daily\u201d to help get effective tests here as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

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

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

Healthcare providers prepare for their first scheduled appointment at a coronavirus testing location at the Aspen Volunteer Fire Department\u2019s Aspen Village Location on Thursday, March 12, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times On Monday evening, Pitkin County Public Health\u2019s symptom tracker results were made available to the public on the department website. The […]<\/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-2456537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 06:58:23","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\/2456537","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=2456537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}