Routt County moves to ‘high risk’ amber level as COVID-19 cases soar

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – Routt County’s COVID-19 cases exploded last week with 64 more confirmed, more than doubling the previous record and leading to more hospitalizations.

Before state health officials could spur the movement, the Routt County Board of Commissioners moved the county to Orange level, formerly known as Level 3. This reduces the capacity of stores to retail, offices, restaurants, places of worship and other indoor events at 25% capacity, half of what it was before.

After resisting the imposition of new restrictions on social gatherings and businesses for weeks, commissioners have now extended restrictions twice in a week in hopes of tackling the virus, saving the ski season which should start in less than two weeks and prevent the local economy from remaining in tatters. “

“I think it’s obvious that it needs to be done,” Commissioner Beth Melton said of the move to Level Orange. “There is no doubt that new restrictions are problematic for our businesses, and there is no doubt that the level of disease prevalence in our community is unacceptable.

The county’s two-week total has risen to 90 cases, above any level in the state’s Safer Home Plan. Instead, the level places Routt County in the state’s Stay at Home metrics. Much of the state is in the same position that more than half of the counties have two-week incidence rates that would put them at the strictest level on the dial. No county has yet upgraded to Stay at Home.

The commissioners are also considering other restrictive measures, especially since Level Orange still allows gatherings inside 50 people.

“Personally, I don’t just rely on the goodwill of our residents to avoid these kinds of gatherings,” Melton said. “I think we need a clear and decisive message in the form of this public health order.”

Orange level restrictions will officially go into place at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. Another meeting is scheduled for Friday to enact another public health order, which could go beyond state restrictions.

“Maybe it is allowed, but that doesn’t make it a good idea,” said Melton, referring to some larger events planned in the area. “At some point, this should not be allowed if we are to send the right message to our community.”

The growth of cases has been described as “exponential” by county public health officials, stressing that it will take weeks for the measures put in place to show an effect on the COVID-19 data.

“Once you achieve exponential growth, you have to seriously change your behavior to see this stop,” said Nicole Harty, Routt County epidemiologist. “If we were all to completely stop going anywhere, interacting with anyone today, we wouldn’t realize that impact for a little while.”

Harty said she expected cases to continue, and her fellow epidemiologist Fritha Morrison said the impact of measures taken now would not be reflected in case data until December.

To put it in perspective, Harty pointed out that after adding new data to the charts of weekly case totals on the county dashboard, all other weeks look small.

“The disease is seeping into our community now. It affects all age groups, various sectors of activity, many social activities. Infections occur at work, at play, at home; it’s everywhere, ”said Dr. Brian Harrington, Routt County Medical Officer of Health. “No one is immune from this in our community.”

There were four new local hospitalizations this week, two from patients who do not live in Routt County. UCHealth is currently treating 60 patients with COVID-19 in its northern Colorado area, an increase of 10 cases since Friday. In the whole system, 262 patients are taken care of as of Tuesday morning, one below the peak of hospitalizations reached in April.

Much of the spread of the virus has been within companies, with around 36% of outbreaks tracing them since September 1. Health officials said they were seeing transmission of cases in the workplace between employees.

About 27% of cases since the start of September have been attributed to personal gatherings and 18% to restaurants.

But health officials have pointed out that outbreaks due to personal gatherings have led to more individual cases than any other type of outbreak. A now notorious Halloween party has led to several new cases at Steamboat Springs High School, forcing students and staff to switch to online education.

“Teens, don’t go to parties,” Harty said, highlighting an increase in teenage cases and linking it directly to rallies in recent weeks.

The test’s positivity rate has risen to over 5%, meaning one in 20 people tested in Routt County receives a positive test result. The positivity rate is not affected by an increase in testing, according to health officials.

Routt County will also refuse COVID-19 testing if the purpose of the test is to travel. Routt County Public Health Director Roberta Smith stressed that people shouldn’t be traveling at this time anyway. There is, however, no official order restricting travel.

Commissioners again pleaded with residents, some of whom tuned into Tuesday’s public health council meeting online, that without immediate changes, the new cases will only escalate and lead to more restrictions, potentially disrupting the ski season.

Smith suggested that the county use its messaging system, and potentially its reverse 911 system, to contact residents directly to inform them of the severity of the virus and the changes in restrictions. A text alert was sent to those who subscribe to the alerts on Tuesday afternoon. Subscribe to alerts on routtcountyalerts.com.