The Montezuma County Public Health Department announced Tuesday that it is moving into the next phase of COVID-19 response. The transition means that residents who tested positive will not be contacted, according to a news release from Vicki Shaffer, Montezuma County public information officer.
“Individual case interviews are no longer necessary to understand disease transmission or risk factors,” the news release said. The health department began focusing efforts on outbreaks in high-risk settings July 1. These high-risk settings include longtime care facilities, assisted living facilities, the homeless shelter and the correctional facility, the release stated.
Residents who tested positive, might have been in contact with the disease, or have questions may reach out to the health department to speak to a registered nurse. The number is (970) 565-3056. Residents with a positive test should isolate for at least five days, the news release urges.
For more information about precautions for people at higher risk of infection, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
Julie Jacobsen, public health nurse with the health department, told The Journal that the change came from the state and is largely due to a shift in funding.
“We are transitioning away from day-to-day calls,” Jacobsen said. The health department will still have a dedicated COVID nurse on staff until next spring.
“I’m happy to report that COVID is starting to become minimal,” Jacobsen said. She also reported that no outbreaks have occurred in high-risk settings.
Jacobsen added that the department has moved away from monovalent vaccines and has found the bivalent vaccines to be effective against most strains. A bivalent vaccine protects against both the original virus that causes COVID-19 and the Omicron variants.
The health department has no adult doses of the COVID vaccine, but the hospital has vaccines available, according to the hospital’s website.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Montezuma County has had 7,828 cases of COVID-19. Ninety-eight deaths occurred among the cases, while 38 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 directly, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado State Emergency Operations Center.
The same website reported 427 cases have occurred in Dolores County, with eight deaths among the cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suppress the number of COVID-19 deaths if fewer than 10 have occurred. Those counts for Dolores County have been suppressed.
Colorado has experienced 1,789,146 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in 2020. More than 15,200 deaths have been directly attributed to the virus.
The public health emergency ended on May 11. The health emergency first was declared on Jan. 31, 2020, by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and was extended 13 times for 90 days each, according to the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. Since the end of the health emergency, there has not been new information from the state about funding or response changes.
