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State News
by John Daley Colorado Public Radio
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new recommendation Tuesday that even vaccinated people in counties with high or substantial community transmission of COVID-19 should wear masks while inside public spaces.
The guidance would cover 38 of Colorado’s 64 counties where transmission rates are at the red “high” level, above 50 new cases per 100,000 residents in a week. Currently, La Plata County is in the “moderate” yellow zone and Montezuma County is in the orange “substantial” category. However, Archuleta County falls into the red “high” zone.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which along with Gov. Jared Polis, created a statewide mask mandate last year that led to protests and conflicts in some of counties, offered a muted response.
“We are reviewing this new guidance from the CDC,” a CDC spokeswoman said via email. “Vaccination is the best protection against COVID-19. Colorado has made the vaccine readily available, and it is free. We encourage all eligible Coloradans to get vaccinated without delay.”
Polis has been criticized by some county health officials during the pandemic for being slow to issue or reissue restrictions when case numbers climb. In a statement, Polis spokesman Conor Cahill said the governor's office was reviewing the CDC recommendation but also reminded counties that they have authority to take action on their own if they consider the rise in transmission a local health emergency. "Local public health departments are not subsidiaries of CDPHE and each has the ability to enact such measures on its own," Cahill said.
Based on current transmission rates – which can fluctuate greatly week by week – the CDC recommendation applies to counties as populated as 700,000-person El Paso and as small as Cheyenne, with a population of about 2,000. That wide fluctuation can make Colorado’s map look scarier than it is.
Cheyenne, for example, is included in the CDC recommendation because they had two active cases of COVID-19 last week. That’s enough to put the county at 50 per 100,000 residents. Add to that a test positivity rate that rose to 4.35 by the CDC’s count, and Cheyenne qualifies as a hotspot.
Dr. Kurt Papenfus is an emergency room physician who serves as the Public Health Officer for Cheyenne County. "We're watching closely for the Delta variant popping up here; would need that to re-encourage masking indoor with crowds," Papenfus said via text. "Watching Delta working its way west from Missouri along I-70. Otherwise, no one wears masks anymore anyway … around here we really don't have crowded indoor places."
In El Paso, where 53.1 percent of eligible residents are vaccinated, according to the state health department, the number of cases in a week has grown from 59.2 per 100,000 at the end of June to 100.2 per 100,000 residents as of Monday – a substantial change indicating significant community spread among the unvaccinated.
A spokeswoman for El Paso County's health department said it had no plans to institute a mask mandate, but it is concerned about rising cases and hoping more residents will decide to get vaccinated. "While we do not intend to issue any local mask mandates at this time, we strongly encourage our community to take prevention actions and stay informed," wrote Michelle Hewitt. "We want to take this opportunity to remind our community that vaccination is the most powerful tool to protect yourself and your family, increase community-level protection, and end this pandemic."
Just more than five people per day are being admitted to El Paso County hospitals with COVID-19, a number that has remained fairly steady through July.
More than 94 percent of those hospitalized in the state since April 1 had not been fully vaccinated for at least 14 days when they became ill.
The mask recommendation does not, for now, cover Denver, Arapahoe, Jefferson or Boulder among other Front Range counties, but does include other populous counties like Weld, Larimer, Pueblo and Mesa.
Dr. John Douglas Jr., executive director of Tri-County Health Department, which covers Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties, said he thought a mask mandate was unlikely.
The CDC’s new indoor mask recommendation applies to many Colorado counties in the “red” or high zone for transmission rate. The state has not said whether or not if will follow suit, instead urging people to jsut get vaccinated. Currently, La Plata County is in the yellow, or moderate, zone. /
Photo by Hart Van Denburg
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