September 9, 2021
FREE
DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
CastlePinesNewsPress.net
VOLUME 9 | ISSUE 3
As COVID cases rise, local hospital ICUs fill up ‘Vast majority’ of hospitalized virus patients are unvaccinated BY THELMA GRIMES TGRIMES@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
As COVID-19 cases continue to go up across the metro area due to the highly-transmissible delta variant, hospitals are admitting more patients to ICU beds, and UCHealth and Kaiser Permanente are postponing non-urgent medical procedures. According to the Tri-County Health Department, as of Sept. 1, hospitals in Douglas County had reached 95% capacity for ICU beds. Inpatient beds were exceeding 85%. In neighboring Arapahoe County, ICU beds were at 83.4% capacity to start the month of September. Adams County increased to 91.3% capacity. As hospitals are dealing with the increase in cases, UCHealth made the call last week to postpone nonurgent surgeries as the system faces the highest number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients since January, when cases neared 500. At the start of September, UCHealth reported more than 260 hospitalizations due to confirmed or suspected COVID patients. UCHealth has 12 hospitals. In the Denver metro area, UCHealth has
Several dozen students stood near the front doors of Douglas County High School in Castle Rock on Sept. 2, participating in a PHOTO BY THELMA GRIMES walkout to protest the district’s mask mandate. Other schools in the county had similar walkouts.
Students walk out in anti-mask protest Hundreds urged personal choice as mandate went into effect BY JESSICA GIBBS JGIBBS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The Sept. 1 walkout started when three students emerged from
Legend High School in Parker and meandered toward a nearby park. Two more followed shortly after, and for a moment the small group was the only sign of protest.
Then came dozens, and within minutes, hundreds of students and parents had amassed across the SEE WALKOUT, P4
County names a critic to Tri-County Health’s board Bracken blames agency for ‘punishing the kids’ with mask rules BY ELLIOTT WENZLER AND JESSICA GIBBS EWENZLER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Douglas County commissioners have appointed a Castle Rock Town
Council member and chair of the county’s public health advisory committee as an interim member of the Tri-County Health Department board.
Kevin Bracken, Castle Rock’s mayor pro tem, has been a vocal critic of Tri-County Health’s SEE TRI-COUNTY, P2
Dream Big Dreams...
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 21
SEE COVID, P9
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