The Montezuma County Public Health Department announced Wednesday that it would no longer post county COVID-19 data on its Facebook page or county website.
The decision was made by the county’s health department — no commissioner input was involved, said Vicki Shaffer, public information officer for Montezuma County.
“Gathering and reporting data for COVID cases has become very time-consuming,” the announcement said.
The last update on the county website was Aug. 18. On that day, the Montezuma County Public Health Department reported 10 new cases of the coronavirus.
In an interview Friday, Public Health Emergency Manager Karen Dickson said the county would continue to report COVID cases to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, which is required. Specific data for the county is available on the CDPHE website.
“Our focus is on COVID case investigation and to decrease the spread of the disease,” she said. “We are seeing a rise in cases because of highly infectious variants, but the difference this time is there is an effective vaccine available to control it.”
The health department felt it was more efficient not to duplicate the data reporting already being done regularly by the CDPHE.
“They have a data collection staff and are better equipped to provide that public service,” Dickson said.
A lag between posted county numbers and state numbers has led to discrepancies and confusion for the public, she said.
Case investigations include contacting and supporting people who test positive, and contact tracing to reduce the spread, Dickson said.
From Monday to Thursday, 50 new cases were reported in Montezuma County, and one new death, according to CDPHE data. The total positive cases per 100,000 people reached 8,990 Thursday.
The CDC currently rates Montezuma County as an area with high transmission. The county has an 8.51% positivity rate, and 58.9% of the eligible population is vaccinated, according to its website.
On Thursday, Marc Meyer, director of Pharmacy Services and Infection Control at Southwest Health System, provided The Journal with the health system’s most recent county virus breakdown sourced from data Monday and Tuesday. On those days combined, 320 tests were administered, and 34 new positive cases of COVID-19 were found, he said.
Sixteen cases, distributed equally, were reported among people ages 1 to 15.
Eighteen cases were reported among people ages 21 to 73. Of the 18 adult cases, 13 were among people under 35 years old, he said.
Meyer added that no COVID-19 patients currently are hospitalized in Montezuma County.
Last week, three to five people with COVID-19 were hospitalized at any one time in Southwest Memorial Hospital. Patients with more serious cases were flown to hospitals on the Front Range, he said.
The health department will continue to circulate vaccines as “this coronavirus and its variants are frequently infecting people in our county and will be with us for the forseeable future,” the announcement said.
An excerpt reads: “Public health has the primary responsibility to work with all persons newly diagnosed with COVID as well as assist with measures to decrease additional spread. We must also continue with our essential services, and fulfill the requirements of our many grant-funded public health programs.”
When reached by phone, County Commissioner Kent Lindsay said it was the health department’s decision to not post the data on the county website and direct people to the CDPHE website data. He added the health department has a limited staff and needs everyone to continue offering numerous health program services, including COVID prevention and education.
Montezuma County Public Health Director Bobbi Lock, and County Commissioners Jim Candelaria and Joel Stevenson have not responded to The Journal’s requests for comment.
State case data can be found at: https://covid19.colorado.gov/data. Cases and deaths by county, a summary of cases and hospital data and other resources are displayed on that page.
CDPHE also updates an outbreak map every Wednesday.
