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The current testing we are sending to the state is an RNA test that looks for genetic material from the virus. While this process is extremely accurate, it is slower and only shows if a patient has an active infection.

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.

We are working to launch the wastewater testing via Biobot in the next week. This test will help us to understand the magnitude of the virus within our community over time. While it is not specific to individuals, it will help us to understand where we are on the curve. We are also looking at participating in a number of validation studies in the short term. It is thought that a validated and reliable test for individual level testing in our community could be available in the next 3-4 weeks. We are actively pursuing all avenues to build up the data that will help our decision making in the future. We are not supportive of utilizing non-validated tests in the Community.

There is a massive task force that is working to support all of the businesses who are going through the financial strain of this pandemic. Visit the “Business Resources” section on the www.gunnisoncounty.org/covid19 website. There, we are working to distill down the assistance programs that are available. In addition, there are industry specific subgroups that are meeting weekly to discuss issues that are specific to certain industries.

We are continually searching for the best available community testing. The issue is that the whole world is also after similar testing. While there are a number of tests available, most are still working to be verified as valid and reliable. In speaking with researchers at the University of Colorado, it is thought that a viable test will be approved within the next 3-4 weeks. We want to make sure that the testing we do is going to give us the best data possible.

Staff at Incident Command will be taking a day of rest on Sunday. We will have a skeleton crew in place just in case there is pressing information that needs to be pushed to the public. Do NOT look for 11am or 6pm updates tomorrow. We will resume normal updates on Monday.

After reviewing the State Executive orders and the new State Public Health Orders, Public Health Director, Joni Reynolds issued a 4th set of Public Health Orders late on 3/26/2020. The main change in the language is surrounding what constitutes an “event” the state level orders did not align with our orders on this front. Now an “event” is defined as any gathering of more than 1 person that doesn’t reside within the same residence. The new order also pushes the sunset date of the orders back to April 11th to coincide with the state’s order.

After reviewing the State Executive orders and the new State Public Health Orders, Public Health Director, Joni Reynolds issued a 4th set of Public Health Orders late on 3/26/2020. The main change in the language is surrounding what constitutes an “event” the state level orders did not align with our orders on this front. Now an “event” is defined as any gathering of more than 1 person that doesn’t reside within the same residence. The new order also pushes the sunset date of the orders back to April 11th to coincide with the state’s order. The Gunnison County Public Health Order is more restrictive than that of CDPHE and therefore controls over the state’s order. Our new infographics for the overall Public Health Orders as well as Business Protocols are attached.

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.

As of 4:30 PM, there were 3 patients who arrived at the ED with respiratory symptoms, one of them was admitted. There was an average of 37% capacity for the ED throughout the day. No patients worsened or were transferred today. 2 patients were discharged to recover at home. Currently there are 3 patients in beds, all with respiratory symptoms. One is amber and 2 are green. That is an average of 30% capacity for Med/Surg over the course of the day. Overall, 15 patients have been admitted with respiratory illness since the beginning of the incident.