Gunnison County Coronavirus Updates

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.