Gunnison County Coronavirus Updates

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.

We appreciate the Governor’s recognition in his Executive Order that stricter local government orders already in place control over his Order. After reviewing the Executive Order, Gunnison County concludes that its Third Amended Public Health Order is consistent with, if not stricter than, the Governor’s Executive Order. Accordingly, under both the terms of Gunnison County’s Order and the Governor’s Executive Order, the Gunnison County Third Amended Public Health Order controls, and we will continue to operate under the terms of the County’s Order.

We are asking families to do the best they can in a very difficult situation. Gunnison County has community spread of the COVID19 virus. This virus can be passed by people who do not show symptoms. Given this situation and to protect our most vulnerable people and health care system, it is strongly recommended that families reduce social contact with other families. Consider your home and the people that live with you to be a small unit, like a small island. Keep that island as physically isolated as possible. Play dates, watching each-others kids, sleep-overs, teenagers hanging out together are all very risky activities for spreading the virus.