Update on Positives

Since November 1st, we have seen 70 positive cases. While 4 in 5 of those cases are affiliated with Western, we do have positives throughout the community across all age groups including at risk individuals. Our contact tracing efforts continue to squash a second generation of the virus. 75% of our recent positive results were already in quarantine when they tested positive.

For more information about test data, visit Gunnison County’s Test Data webpage and Dashboard webpage.

2 of 7 Indicators Met

We have tripped two of our indicators for a move to the yellow level of Gunnison County’s Coronameter. We have had 3 or more days in a 7 day period with 3 or more positives per day. Our second indicator of positivity remains over our 5% threshold. The remaining indicators are around our ability to give care. While our healthcare system is in great shape locally, there has been an increase in hospitalizations at the state level. We will continue to monitor these indicators and update the community.

Code Red

The County will be sending out a code red message tomorrow morning via the Emergency Management systems in coordination with RE1J and Western. The message is simple, we all need to step up at the individual level to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community. 

It’s a critical time to slow the spread of COVID-19, and we need your help to keep the school district and businesses open!

Reduce your daily contacts OR limit to just your household contacts OR eliminate all non-essential gatherings

Reduce travel OR eliminate non-essential travel

Remember the commitments of containment:

Face coverings 

Physical distancing

Hand washing 

Monitor for symptoms, isolate if any symptoms, call the Call Center to get scheduled for testing or any concerns/questions 970-641-7660

Protect at risk individuals

Interconnected Community

While we have seen a disproportionate number of cases at the Western Colorado University campus, we want to reiterate that we are an interconnected community. Many of the students work at our main street businesses. Staff and students at Western commute throughout our community. Many have a family with children or a spouse who works in the community. We share a hospital, grocery store, and many other services. We have to balance handling the outbreak with continuing to thrive as a community.

Western Outbreak

Western Colorado University continues to coordinate with Health and Human Services to respond to the outbreak on campus. As of today they have:

  • Transitioned all classes online
  • Suspended Athletics
  • Moved all meals to grab and go
  • Closed the Field House
  • Expanded quarantine housing for students
  • Developed travel guidance 

State Mitigation Plans

We have been out of alignment with two of the State’s metrics for our Protect Our Neighbors status for a few weeks now. In order to continue on our path to keep businesses open, the state is requiring that we put in place mitigation measures locally. 

As of today, we are reducing our event sizes to 50 outdoors and 25 indoors. All events, even those who have a prior approval, must reduce to these sizes starting today, 11/5. We also recommend planning for future event sizes of 25 outdoors and 10 indoors. While Health and Human Services will continue to work through additional event applications, we are pausing any future approvals as we continue to move into a surge of cases.

If you are planning for a future event, you may submit an Event Risk Mitigation Application and receive support from an Event Review Team member. Additional information can be found on Events Review webpage. Thank you for your support in keeping our community healthy, safe, and open.

Another trend of recent positives has been around travel. As a second mitigation step, we are recommending that anyone who travels outside of the county for more than 24 hours self isolate for 7 days upon their return. If you develop symptoms during that time, stay isolated and seek testing.

It is likely that if we are unable to get our local metrics under control that the State will move us to a more restrictive Safer at Home Level 1. What would this mean for us?

  • Reduce Business Occupancies from 55% to 50%
  • Gyms and fitness centers reduced to 25%
  • Personal gatherings of no more than 10 people and no more than 2 households

Database upgrade

Gunnison Public Health is instituting some changes to its database used to track test results that may cause some temporary downtime of the county’s dashboard, or potentially even some odd results.  By installing a new database the County will improve our ability to analyze and understand results, maintain data quality, and effectively communicate with the public.  This database generates the county’s public dashboard.  While we do not anticipate any prolonged outages with the dashboard, or data anomalies, we appreciate patience, particularly over the weekend, as we work through any issues resulting from the transition. 

Virtual Town Hall

Our next town hall will be on 11/12 during the 4:00 PM-5:00 PM time slot. Sign up ahead of time here.

If there is a topic you would like to see covered, please email ideas to, pio@gunnisoncounty.org.

State Exposure Notification App

The state’s new exposure notification app is now live. Info on how to set it up can be found here. Even a small uptake of the app in our community can positively impact our outcomes. While alone it won’t be a game changer, combined with our other tools- social distancing, masks, hand hygiene- we can continue to reduce the spread.

Screening Site

The main screening site is located at Gunnison Valley Health and is open Monday through Friday. Testing requires an appointment ahead of time. 

The screening site is located in the large north entrance parking lot and operates out of a shed. We ask that you please contact the Call Center in advance to schedule an appointment at 970-641-7660.

Call Center: 970-641-7660

The Call Center is open from 8 a.m.-12p.m. and 1 p.m.- 4 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Here is an infographic of the Call Center call tree.

For those needing assistance outside of those hours, please leave a message. There will also be someone monitoring the callcenter@gunnisoncounty.org email. 

Delivery Assistance

We can help you arrange deliveries of groceries from City Market’s Pickup program, food bundles from the Gunnison Food Pantry and prescriptions from City Market or Walmart pharmacies. We ask that you only use this service if you are at risk and isolating at home, ill with COVID-19 symptoms or quarantined because of exposure. Deliveries are made by drivers trained to handle your order safely. 

To arrange for a delivery, please call Senior Transportation Dispatch at 970-641-7959 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Grocery deliveries can be scheduled Monday through Friday.

Prescription deliveries can be called in throughout the week but will only be delivered on Tuesdays and Fridays for the Gunnison area and on Tuesdays for the Crested Butte area. Special arrangements may be made in the case of an emergency.

Food Pantry bundles can be requested throughout the week but are only delivered on Tuesdays and Fridays in Gunnison, and on Tuesdays for the Crested Butte area. 

Importance of Self-Reporting

One of the best tools to provide early warnings of spread in the community is to self-report as symptomatic. If you have symptoms consistent with COVID-19, even if they are mild, please self-report and isolate yourself.