Vaccines

We began administering our first round of vaccines to front line health care workers yesterday evening. We will continue through our first shipment of vaccine tonight and on Saturday. This first round of 300 doses will not be open to the general public and will be limited to front line healthcare workers. Here is a breakdown about the phases of vaccine delivery from the state.

We have also begun to develop a webpage with vaccine resources for those looking to learn more. We will continue to add resources to this page. 

covid19.gunnisoncounty.org/vaccine

While the vaccine is a light at the end of the tunnel, we are not done with the pandemic yet. We all need to continue the public health measures that we have committed to throughout this event.  

Virtual Town Hall

Tonight’s Town Hall included a panel of medical professionals from the community answering questions about the covid-19 vaccine. A recording and the presentation slides can be found here.

Our next town hall will be at 4:00 PM on 12/21. The change in date is because of the holiday. Sign up ahead of time here.

We will be altering our schedule for the holidays. We have changed our Virtual Town Hall to 12/21 at 4:00 PM for the week of Christmas. We will be taking a week off of the town hall meetings on the week between Christmas and the New Year. We will resume our normal Thursday schedule on 1/7/2021 at 4:00 PM.

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

Community Testing

Day one of the community testing was a huge success. Early estimates show that we ran around 825 individuals through the site in Crested Butte. We saw a fluctuation in wait times from about an hour and a half to as low as ten minutes. We will work to update the community on wait times tomorrow via the Gunnison County Health and Human Services Facebook page.

Currently we have 545 signed up for the Gunnison event tomorrow, 12/18. As a reminder, if you are being tested, do not eat, drink or smoke at least 20 minutes prior to your test.

Our free testing event is available to anyone who would like a COVID-19 test. This test will provide a snapshot of if a person is actively infected with the virus. The hope is that we catch asymptomatic carriers before they spread the virus to others who may become more ill.

  • Friday, December 18th will be at the Gunnison County Fairgrounds

The Gunnison site will operate from 7:00 am – 5:00 pm. Lines will close at 5:00 pm, those in line at 5:00 pm get tested.

More information can be found at covid19.gunnisoncounty.org/test

Update on Positives

Our numbers are at 660 positive, 6,341 negative, and 82 pending tests as of December 17th. The data from the testing site will be uploaded into the dashboard as one large data dump once we receive results.

At a state level, hospitalizations and cases are coming down. This appears to be primarily driven by the front range counties that have enacted strict red level health measures. Locally, we have been on a consistent plateau slightly lower than our November spike, although the data from this week appears to show an upward trend. We have also continued to see covid positive patients showing up at the hospital. We have to act as a community to reverse this trend. 

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.

Testing Site

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

The testing 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.