Microscopic view of COVID-19 virus. Image servprodowneyca.com
Local known cases of CODIVD-19 infections have now topped 16, with three more ‘probable,’ according to county health officials.
Andrea Carlstrom, Director of Chaffee County Public and Environmental Health (CCDH), said in a press release that as of last Friday, (March 27) health officials have conducted 137 tests locally. She reported 87 have come back negative, 16 were positive, and the rest are pending at last report.
Carlstrom said currently they are unaware of any confirmed positive cases of the virus in any prisoners at the local jail or Buena Vista prison facility.
Carlstrom also commented about keeping pace with the growing number of cases and the specific status of each case being tracked.
“We are now offering test data at the end of each week to include total number of tests, total negatives, total pending, and of course, positive cases. This information will be on our Facebook page and county website. Thus far, one death, that of an 83-year-old man locally has been attributed to the virus.”
With a continuing shortage of test kits statewide, Colorado appears to be reserving them to help protect first responders. “We have been instructed by the state health department to treat untested people with symptoms who have come into contact with a person with a positive COVID-19 test as “probable”cases. There are currently at least three probable cases that we know of,” Carlstrom added.
At Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center, one patient being treated who tested positive for the virus was doing better and expected to be released soon, according to Allison Gergley, Marketing and Public Relations Director. No new COVID-19 patients were being treated. Three other inpatients were tested, and all those tests came back negative, she said.
Importantly, the department already has a self-reporting procedure up and running for residents who believe they may have symptoms related to COVID-19. The reporting tool is live on the Chaffee County website, and Carlstrom said 39 people entered their information on it over the weekend. The information is used for disease trending purposes only, she pointed out. A subsection of the county site focuses exclusively on information related to the health and economic emergency situation created by the pandemic: http://www.chaffeecounty.org/Public-Health-Coronavirus
Elsewhere, a Salida man, Antonio Archuleta, was arrested last week for allegedly trying to spit on an Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center nurse after being arrested in a domestic violence case and claiming he had the virus. He has since been jailed on assault charges related to both the domestic violence incident and aggravated assault against a public official in the case involving the nurse. His bond was set at $20,000 by Eleventh Judicial District Chief Judge Patrick Murphy pending a Thursday hearing.
Statewide, as numbers keep climbing, more than 50 deaths have been reported, and Colorado cases have topped 2,500.
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