If you are symptomatic, but otherwise ok, please self-isolate and self-report at www.gunnisoncounty.org/covid19

If you are symptomatic and worsening, please call the call center. 970-641-7660

We ask that you not show up to the screening site until you call first.

If it is an emergency, never hesitate to call 911.

Primary Information Sources

www.gunnisoncounty.org/covid19

Gunnison Health and Human Services Facebook page

Please self-report if you have any symptoms and encourage others to self-report so we can have the best information. We are using this data to help us track the virus through our community and to predict a potential surge on our healthcare system.

A Timeline

We acted early with stringent Public Health Orders in an attempt to flatten the curve and reduce the impacts on our health care system. In doing so, we bought ourselves time to build up the infrastructure to address this pandemic. So far, we have seen this strategy working and the hospital impacts have been manageable. While we do have some positive signs, the data we are currently collecting in self-reporting forms is subjective. With the time that the Public Health Orders gave us, we are now working hard to gather actionable data so that we can safely begin to normalize. The only way to get there is with fast reliable testing for the community to understand how many people have previously been infected, how many have immunity, and where exactly any remaining clusters might be.  Testing will be necessary for future planning and public health actions.

Community Testing

We are working to launch fecal testing via Biobot in the next week. While it is not specific to individuals, we hope this test will help us to understand the magnitude of the virus within our community over time. GVH has announced that it will take part in a validation study with Vibrant America. There are also many small companies that are soliciting local healthcare facilities to run validation testing. We are not supportive of utilizing non-validated tests in the Community for confirming individual’s immunity or to drive decision making.

A Letter from Tina Wilson at GVH

The Gunnison Valley Hospital Laboratory is partnering with Vibrant America Clinical Laboratories, who are developing (with the FDA) a home collection kit for COVID-19, looking for antibodies. This will help determine what stage of the viral infection you are in and if you now have antibodies against the COVID-19 virus.  This information will provide significant research to improve testing methodologies. Thanks so much for your help!

We are looking for 50 patients who have tested positive and 30-40 who have tested negative for COVID-19.  You must be 14 days from your swab collection if you tested positive.  We will not be testing anyone that could still be infectious.

We will be asking you to sign a consent, have 1 tube of blood collected and you will poke your finger and put a drop of blood on a piece of paper.  We will then send your specimens to Vibrant Laboratories for testing.  GVH Laboratories will receive your blood test results, and we will notify you when we receive those results.

This study is free to participants, you may call the GVH Laboratory to schedule a collection or we may reach out to you from GVH Laboratory. We will be collecting every day of the week from 8:00-11:00 until we complete the study.

GVH Laboratory Phone Number – 970-641-7259.

Thank you in advance, this is a great opportunity to aid in the development of accurate Antibody testing kits, so patients do not have to leave their residence.

Sincerely,

Tina Wilson, MT (ASCP)

GVH Laboratory Manager

Second Homeowners

Thinking of visiting your part-time home in the Gunnison Valley to enjoy the abundant trails, waters, peaks and sunshine? Think again.

While the primary residents of Gunnison County work to weather the coronavirus (COVID-19) health crisis, “non-resident homeowners are strongly encouraged to leave Gunnison County and return to their primary place of residence,” according to a Public Health Order. There are reasons for this:

  • Compliance: Primary residents have proven much more familiar with the restrictions imposed by the Public Health Order to limit the spread of this deadly disease.
  • Resources: The supplies at our markets and pharmacies are already strained. As are the staffs with EMS and law enforcement.
  • Healthcare: GVH has no ICU capabilities or rooms. We have expanded our negative pressure rooms from one to five. We are a 24-bed critical access hospital. We do not have nearly enough tests to care for one of the highest case rates per capita in the U.S.
  • Altitude: Gunnison County’s rarefied air is not well suited for a respiratory illness such as COVID-19. 

Help Gunnison County begin to sink the spike of positive COVID-19 tests by simply not visiting Gunnison County. We miss you. We value you. We can’t wait to see you again. Just please. Not until we begin to reverse the aggressive trend of this global pandemic in our neck of the woods.

Screening Site

We are monitoring a potential storm and may have to move the screening site in Crested Butte to the Lodge at Mountaineer Square on Thursday. We will make that announcement tomorrow.

Do not show up to the site unannounced. Please call the call center (970) 641-7660 prior to going to the screening site.

Call Center Hours

The call center is now running from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday-Saturday, closed on Sunday. 970-641-7660

Self-Report as Resolved

As we are beginning to see some individuals run the course of this virus, we would like to ask that you start reporting on when your symptom resolve date is. When did you recover from your symptoms? RECOVERY defined as resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications for 72 hours and improvement in respiratory symptoms (e.g., cough, shortness of breath); and, at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared. Please fill out the following form.

At 4:33 PM we had 195 previously symptomatic people reporting that their symptoms had resolved.

By the Numbers

As of 3:49 PM, we have 79 positive, 131 negative, and 12 pending tests. This document is updated live with information.

We have also added a Hospital section to our By the Numbers that will be updated daily.

Hospital    Last update
Current Occupied Capacity (includes non-respiratory patients) 20% 3:48 PM 3/31
Current Admits with respiratory issues 2 3:48 PM 3/31
Total Admits with respiratory issues 22 3:48 PM 3/31
Transferred Today 0 3:48 PM 3/31
Total Transferred 13 3:48 PM 3/31

The dashboard below looks at a number of measures that we are currently monitoring (click image to enlarge).