Featured graphic: From the Colorado Dept. of Public Health and Environment COVID-19 Case Data. This graphic shows the county-by-county case rates per 100,000 population. The higher the number, the more infections. Chaffee County’s rate has doubled in the past week, and it is ringed with counties having some of the highest case rates in the nation.
The numbers continue to rise, as the coronavirus pandemic known as COVID-19 continues its attack; passing one million cases globally and more than 300,000 U.S. cases in the past 36 hours. As of 4 p.m. Saturday April 4, Colorado had 4,565 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Chaffee County had 21 confirmed cases, with several tests still pending.
Colorado Snapshot:
Cases* 4,565
Hospitalized 875
Counties 54
People tested 23,900
Deaths 126
Outbreaks 30*
*Includes outbreaks of multiple cases at residential and non-hospital health care facilities, including nursing homes.
The rate of hospitalization in Colorado, indicating serious COVID-19 symptoms, is running at 19.1 percent; very near the national rate of 20 percent. The rate of positive cases, versus total tests, is also – ironically – 19.1 percent. Which means people who are showing symptoms and get tested have a one in five chance of being positive, and those who test positive have a one in five chance of being hospitalized. At last word, Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center had no active cases of COVID-19, although one patient there died of COVID-19 last week, and the county has had two deaths total.
The pandemic death rate, based on confirmed cases, is 2.7 percent. Because so little testing is available, that number may be artificially high because it is based on actual confirmed positive cases; a suppressed number due to the lack of test kits, especially in rural areas.
“If you think you’re going to be immune from this just because you live in a rural areas – in Idaho or Colorado, you’re wrong,” said Dr. Irvin Redlener, of the Columbia University School of Public Health Policy. Redlener is a recognized national leader in disaster preparedness and the public health ramifications of terrorism and large-scale catastrophic events. He gives a stark picture of a virus that is not going to spare anyone, anywhere. He warns that rural areas will be particularly hard hit and that “All we have right now [to fight this] is a shutdown.”
Positive cases have now been reported in 54 of Colorado’s 64 counties; a clear pattern of spread that is continuing, in spite of Governor Jared Polis’s March 25 executive order which required Coloradans and employees of all non-essential services to go home and stay home. Readers can access the full state report here.
Just as concerning as the total numbers of COVID-19 cases are the rates of infection. These are calculated based upon numbers per 100,000 population; the higher the number, the greater the spread. The rate of infection in Chaffee County (population around 21,000) is running at 104.85. That number has doubled in a week.
Chaffee County is ringed by other mountain counties with some of the highest infection rates, if not THE highest rates of infection per population – in the nation:
County Rate per 100,000
Eagle 606.97
Gunnison 524.08
Pitkin 212.54
Summit 138.83
Routt 112.92
Confirmed cases in Colorado rose by nearly a thousand in 24 hours between Friday and Saturday. The first law enforcement officer died of COVID-19 this week in El Paso County.
The rate of infection appears to be increasing in the rural mountain counties that would normally be packed with tourists at this time of year. While health experts say that shutting down the ski resorts when Polis did surely slowed the progress, community spread appears already to have been seeded; setting the stage for today’s numbers.
President Donald Trump, whose leadership of the pandemic response appears to have been largely absent, has displayed a punitive stance toward many of the state’s governors. They have been left with a patchwork response; attempting to obtain the needed personal protective equipment in a broken, price-gouging supply chain. Today during the daily COVID-19 public health briefing, he commented, “There will be a lot of death in the coming weeks.”
No kidding.
Thank you for your clear explanation of why dr Birx highlighted Colorado as one of four states they are closely monitoring right now.
Outlyiers like Eagle County and Chaffee will ultimately yield significant information about Covid19 transmission patterns beyond the random dispersal in densely populated cities. For example the woman at the bridge club in CS was found to have exposed about 300 people.
Stay strong; stay home! This too shall pass.
Anne Kraetzer
Colorado Springs
I think you must be nuts if you think our President has not been leading to fight the coronavirus. Keep your apparent distaste for our leader to yourself. Try to just give us the facts!
Nancy, I assure you I am not nuts; The conclusions are not mine. Including them does not make them mine, it tells you what they said. The comments to which you refer are sourced (with live links) to the well-respected media who gathered that information and reported those conclusions. They include a national media source at the center of the unfolding disaster in New York, and a well respected scientific journal. Reporting what other media have covered is not biased; it is factual. I did not say, as you claim “think our president has not been leading to fight the coronavirus”; You concluded that.
My role as a journalist is to report the facts. I could perhaps have chosen another way of agreeing with the president that we are facing a horrible week; Yes as the president said ‘there will be a lot of death this week.”
Would you please give us a report on what the CEO’s and other high management people of the Corperations that own hospitals and health facilities are doing? They have all made millions of dollars off of hospitals. Are they earning that money now? Are they placing orders with companies who make protection equipment. Are they trying to work with companies who make ventilators? I would think that this is their job and they could do it much better then political people. What exactly are they doing? I’ve heard nothing about them during this pandemic!
We can try. We have heard little about this topic either. Here locally, Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center is a county-based non-profit, with open board meetings which Ark Valley Voice and other media cover. It is responsible to this community.
One of the problems being experienced right now related to supplies for everything needed to fight the coronovirus pandemic is that health care organizations are dealing with the regular, open market and supply chains — and this situation is anything but normal. Even states — which are not the politicians only, they are hard-working civil servants — are now faced with being bid against by the Federal Emergency Response agency as well as other foreign countries. This is why the Defense Production Act was passed in the 1950s during the Korean War; to organize production and resource supplies based upon where they are needed.
Tell you what Jan, why don’t you just report the news and leave your political stance out of the article.
Your political commentary in the last paragraph ruined what was otherwise a good article.
If you think you can do a better job than the President, by all means, have at it. I personally would not want to be in his shoes right now.
Laurie, Including sourced links to what other media have reported about this pandemic responses is not bias, nor is it my opinion; it is what they said. I hope you followed the embedded links; the two highly respected media reported an inadequate response and Ark Valley Voice reported what they said. Truth can come from many sources during crisis like this. The president said we are going to see a lot of death this week; it is hardly a reassuring message – and I agreed with him. I wouldn’t want to be in the president’s shoes either.
“President Donald Trump, whose leadership of the pandemic response appears to have been largely absent, has displayed a punitive stance toward many of the state’s governors. They have been left with a patchwork response; attempting to obtain the needed personal protective equipment in a broken, price-gouging supply chain. Today during the daily COVID-19 public health briefing, he commented, “There will be a lot of death in the coming weeks.”
No kidding.”
This is not journalism. It is editorializing and it’s your opinion. There are many who don’t agree. President Trump has done an extraordinary job in a catastrophic situation. These kinds of comments are demoralizing.
As you know doctor, this section of the report included link sources to two well-respected news organizations; one is one of the top news organizations in the country and it is at the center of the situation in New York, the other a top scientific journal. The conclusions are not mine or AVVs — this piece reported what they have sourced and concluded.
“NO kidding” simply agrees with the president, who has TOLD US that there will be a lot of death this week. That is actually an understatement.
Would these be the same well respected news agencies that have spread false narratives about trump for 4 years. Fake news is becoming more and more apparent and less and less watched because of these false stories. News agencies that once were trusted sources like the New York Times have an agenda that won’t work if trump is in office.
It might be time to expand your news horizons from the media source from which you appear to be getting your national information. Where are you getting your ‘facts’ that the New York Times has an ‘agenda’? What agenda would that be? As far as the code of ethics to which we main stream media adhere – it is truth and facts – not public relations. You are getting this publication FREE. The news organization to which this article refers are all the community news organizations of Colorado which depend upon advertising to our readers to help cover our budgets and those retailers and service providers who normally advertise with us are shut down. When they can reopen is not yet in sight. The facts show that Trump waited 70 DAYS to respond to a crisis that many of us saw coming in January.
Everyone has a right to their own opinion and Jan Wonder is doing a fantastic job of reporting on Covid 19 and backs up her reporting with proven accurate sources. You attack her for one reason, for reporting the facts. Your so-called dear leader has not done an “extraordinary job”, his reign of lies and hate will end on election day. So go and continue to do your counseling and focus on your family and cease the criticism of those who speak the truth.